LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


THE   UNITED   STATES 


THE  UNITED  STATES 


ITS    HISTORY    AND    CONSTITUTION 


. 


BY 


ALEXANDER   JOHNSTON 

H 

LATE  PROFESSOR  OP  JURISPRUDENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY 
IN  PRINCETON  COLLEGE 


TOIVBE 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1889 


COPYRIGHT,  1888, 

BY  ALEXANDER  JOHNSTON. 
O  £~  — 


COPYRIGHT,  1889, 
BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS. 


TYPOGRAPHY   BY   J.    S.    GUSHING   AND   CO. 

PRESSWORK    BY   BERWICK   AND    SMITH. 

BOSTON. 


PUBLISHERS'   NOTE. 


THE  contents  of  the  present  volume,  by  the  late  Pro 
fessor  Alexander  Johnston,  first  appeared  as  the  article 
of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  on  the  history  and  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States.  The  narrative,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind,  ends  with  the  year  1887  —  the  last  of 
the  period  entitled  by  the  author  "The  Reconstructed 
Nation:  1865-1887."  There  are,  however,  few  details 
which  the  events  of  the  past  two  years  have  modified, 
and  few  which  need  to  be  supplemented.  Some  slight 
verbal  changes,  where  evidently  indicated,  have  been 
made  in  this  sense,  a  note  added  with  reference  to  the 
admission  into  the  Union  of  Washington,  Montana,  and 
North  and  South  Dakota,  and  the  election  of  Harrison 
and  Morton,  and  the  prohibition  of  Chinese  immigration 
chronicled.  It  has  not  been  thought  advisable,  however, 
to  change  or  supplement  the  text  in  two  or  three  other 
instances  in  which  statistics  of  1889  might  have  been 
given,  but  in  which  the  reader  will  perceive  those  of 
1887  to  have  been  retained  as  better  preserving  the  con 
sistency  and  significance  of  the  passages  in  which  they 
occur. 


CONTENTS. 


I.     COLONIZATION ,1 

II.     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION  ....  23 

III.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  UNION 33 

IV.  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE     ...  60 
V.     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT    .  79 

VI.     THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY    .        .        .  120 
VII.     DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY    ....  139 
VEIL     INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  SECTIONAL  DI 
VERGENCE    .        .  166 

IX.     TENDENCIES  TO  DISUNION 191 

X.     THE  CIVIL  WAR    .        .        „        .        .        .        .214 

XI.     THE  RECONSTRUCTED  XATION      ...        .        .  245 

BIBLIOGRAPHY        .    *    .        ...        .        .  273 

PRESIDENTS  AND  VICE-PRESIDENTS     .        .        .  277 

INDEX      .        .        .        .        .                .        .  279 


THE   UNITED   STATES, 


i. 

COLONIZATION. 

1607-1750. 

1.  THOUGH  the  voyages  of  the  Cabots  (1497-98)  along 
the  coast  of  North  America  were  the  ground  which  the 
English  finally  adopted  as  a  basis  for  their  claims  on 
that  continent,  no  very  effective  steps  were  taken  to 
reduce  the  continent  to  possession  until  after  1606. 
Martin  Frobisher  (1576)  failed  in  an  attempt  £ar|y  voyages 
to  explore  Labrador.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  and 
(1578)  failed  in  a  similar  attempt  on  the  con 
tinent;  and  in  a  second  effort  (1583)  he  was  lost  in  a 
storm  at  sea  on  his  return.  In  1584  his  half-brother 
Raleigh  took  up  the  work  under  commission  from  Queen 
Elizabeth.  He  sent  two  small  vessels  under  Amidas 
and  Barlow.  They  explored  the  south-central  coast  of 
what  is  now  the  United  States,  and  returned  with  such 
flattering  reports  that  the  courtly  Raleigh  at  once  named 
the  country  Virginia,  in  honor  of  the  queen,  and  sent 
out  a  colony.  It  was  starved  out  in  a  year  (1585).  He 
sent  another  to  the  same  place,  Roanoke  Island  (1587), 


THE  UNITED  STATES. 


but  it  had  disappeared  when  it  was  searched  for  three 
years  after.  Gosnold  (1602)  found  a  shorter  route  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  spent  a  winter  on  an  island  off  the 
present  coast  of  Massachusetts ;  but  his  men  refused  to 
stay  longer.  These  are  the  official  records  of  English 
explorations  up  to  1606;  but  it  is  pretty  certain  that 
fishing  and  trading  voyages,  of  which  no  record  was  kept, 
were  more  common  than  has  been  supposed,  and  that 
they  kept  alive  a  knowledge  of  the  country. 

2.  In  1606  James  I.  formed  two  companies  by  a  single 

charter.     To  one,  the  London  Company,  he  granted  the 

North-American  coast  between  34°  and  38° 

London 

and  Plymouth  N.  lat.  ;  to  the  other,  the  Plymouth  Com 
pany,  whose  membership  was  more  in  the 
west  of  England,  he  granted  the  coast  between  41°  and 
45°  N.  lat.  The  intervening  coast,  between  lat.  38°  and 
41°,  or  between  the  Eappahannock  and  Hudson  rivers, 
was  to  be  common  to  both,  but  neither  was  to  plant  a 
settlement  within  100  miles  of  a  previous  settlement  of 
the  other.  Each  was  to  be  governed  by  a  council  ap 
pointed  by  the  king,  and  these  councils  were  to  appoint 
colonial  councils  of  thirteen,  with  really  absolute  powers. 
Neither  company  did  much  in  colonization  :  the  London 
Company  gave  up  its  charter  in  1624,  and  the  Plymouth 
Company,  after  a  complete  change  of  constitution  in 
1620,  surrendered  its  charter  in  1635.  But  the  London 
Company  at  least  began  the  work  of  colonization,  and  the 
Plymouth  Company  parcelled  out  its  grant  to  actual  colo 
nists.  Above  all,  the  charter  of  the  two  companies  had 
granted  the  principle  to  which  the  colonists  always 
appealed  as  the  foundation  of  English  colonization  in 
North  America,  as  the  condition  on  which  immigrants 
had  entered  it,  irrevocable  unless  by  mutual  consent  of 


COLONIZATION. 


crown  and  subjects  :  "Also,  we  do,  for  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  declare  by  these  presents  that  all  and  every 
the  persons,  being  our  subjects,  which  shall  go  and  in 
habit  within  the  said  colony  and  plantation,  and  every 
their  children  and  posterity,  which  shall  happen  to  be 
born  within  any  of  the  limits  thereof,  shall  have  and 
enjoy  all  liberties,  franchises,  and  immunities  of  free 
denizens  and  natural  subjects- within  any  of  our  other 
dominions,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  if  they  had 
been  abiding  and  born  within  this  our  realm  of  England, 
or  in  any  other  of  our  dominions." 

3.  The  London  Company  was  first  in  the  field.    A  ship 
load  of  the  adventurers  then  swarming  in  London  was 
sent  out  under  Christopher  Newport.     He  found  a  fine 
river,  which  he  named  after  the  king,  and  on  its  banks, 
within    the    present    State    of  Virginia,   he   settlement  of 
planted  the  settlement  of  Jamestown1  (13th    Jamestown; 
May,  1607).       Misgovernment,    dissension,   mismanage 
ment,   and   starvation  were   almost    too   much   for   the 
infant  colony,  and  several  times  the  colonists  were  on 
the   point  of   giving   it   up   and  going   home.     Twelve 
years  were   required  to    put  Virginia   on   a    ofvirinia. 
sound    footing.       By  that   time   the    liberal 
element  in  the  London  Company  had  got  control  of  it, 
and  granted  the  colonists  a  representative  government. 

1  The  former  settlement  of  Jamestown  is  now  in  James  City  county, 
Va.,  about  32  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  James  river.  It  was  at  first 
the  capital  of  the  colony,  but  began  to  decline  when  Williamsburgh 
was  made  the  capital.  Its  death-blow  was  received  when  it  was  burned 
in  1676,  during  Bacon's  rebellion.  It  was  not  rebuilt,  and  has  now 
almost  disappeared.  "  Nothing  remains  but  the  ruins  of  a  church  tower 
covered  with  ivy,  and  some  old  tombstones.  The  river  encroaches  year 
by  year,  and  the  ground  occupied  by  the  original  huts  is  already  sub 
merged." 


THE  UNITED  STATES. 


The  year  in  which  this  house  of  burgesses  met  (1619) 
was  the  year  in  which  African  slaves  were  introduced 
into  the  colony  from  a  Dutch  vessel. 

4.  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  England  began  the 
more  northerly  settlements.     Driven  from  England,  they 
found   refuge   in  Holland.      Thence   returning  for   the 
moment  to  England,  a  company  of  102  of  them  set  sail 
for  America  in  the  "  Mayflower,"  landing  (December  21, 

settlement  of  1620)  at  Plymouth,  in  the  south-eastern  part 
Plymouth ;  Of  faQ  present  State  of  Massachusetts.  The 
rigors  of  a  new  and  cold  country,  combined  with  poverty 
and  the  payment  of  interest  at  45  per  cent.,  made  the 
early  years  of  the  Plymouth  colony  a  desperate  struggle 
for  existence,  but  it  survived.  It  had  no  special  charter, 
but  a  license  from  the  Plymouth  Company.  Other  little 
towns  were  founded  to  the  north  of  this  settlement,  and 
in  1629  these  were  all  embraced  in  a  charter  given  by 
of  Massachu-  Charles  I.  to  the  Governor  and  Company  of 
setts  Bay ;  Massachusetts  Bay.  This  was  a  Puritan  ven 
ture,  composed  of  men  of  higher  social  grade  than  the 
Plymouth  Separatists;  and  was  meant  to  furnish  a  refuge 
for  those  who  dreaded  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the 
crown.  The  next  year  the  company  took  the  bold  step 
of  transferring  its  organization  to  America,  so  as  to  be 
out  of  the  immediate  notice  of  the  crown  and  its  agents. 
Eleven  vessels  took  more  than  a  thousand  colonists  over, 
and  the  real  colony  of  Massachusetts  was  begun. 

5.  The  charter  of  the  London  Company  was  surren 
dered  to  the  crown,  as  has  been  said,  in  1624 ;  and  the 
king  thereafter  disposed  of  the  territory  which  had  been 

granted  to  it  as  he  pleased.     In  1632  the  new 

of  Maryland;     °   ,  ..«,•,,  i  f    •.     j« 

colony  of  Maryland  was  carved  out  01  it  tor 
Lord  Baltimore.     In  1663  the  territory  to  the  south  of 


COLONIZATION. 


the  present  State  of  Virginia  was1  cut  off  from  it  and 
called  Carolina,  covering  the  present  States  of  settlement  of 
North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.     In      Carolina ; 
1729  Carolina  was  divided  into  North  and  South  Caro 
lina:  and  in  1732  the  last  of  the   colonies, 

of  Georgia ; 

Georgia,  was  organized.     Five  distinct  colo 
nies  were  thus  formed  out  of  the  original  London  Com 
pany's  grant. 

6.  When  the  Plymouth  Company  finally  surrendered 
its  charter  in  1635,  it  had  made  one  ineffectual  attempt 
at  colonization  (1607)  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec 
river,  in  Maine,  and  one  complete  colony,  Massachusetts 
Bay,  had  arisen  within  its  territory.     Another  colony, 
that  of  Plymouth,  existed  by  license.     Massachusetts  set 
tlers,  without  even  a  license,  were  pouring  into  the  vacant 
territory  to  the  south  of  Massachusetts,  there  to  form  the 
colonies  of  Connecticut   and   Khode   Island,     .  _ 

'     of  Connecticut 

afterwards  chartered  by  the  crown,  1662  and  and 
1663.  A  few  fishing  villages  to  the  north  of  Rhode  lsland; 
Massachusetts,  established  under  the  grant  of  John 
Mason,  were  the  nucleus  of  the  colony  of  of  New  Hamp. 
New  Hampshire.  The  present  States  of  Ver-  shire- 
mont  and  Maine  were  not  yet  organized.  Out  of  the 
original  Plymouth  Company's  grant  were  thus  formed 
the  colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
and  New  Hampshire.  The  name  New  England  was 
commonly  applied  to  the  whole  territory  from  the  begin 
ning,  having  been  first  used  by  Captain  John  Smith  in 
1614. 

7.  Nine  of  the  "old  thirteen"  colonies  are  thus  ac 
counted  for.     The  remaining  four  fell  in  the  territory 
between  the  two  main  grants,  which  was  to  be  common  to 
both  companies,  but  was  in  fact  never  appropriated  by 


6  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

either.  The  Spaniard  had  settled  contentedly  far  to  the 
south ;  and  the  Frenchman,  still  bound  by  too  many  of 
the  ancient  ecclesiastical  influences  to  contest  supremacy 
with  the  Spaniard,  had  settled  as  far  to  the  north  as  pos 
sible,  in  Canada.  England  had  been  so  far  released  from 
ecclesiastical  influences  by  the  spread  of  the  Reformation 
as  to  be  prepared  to  contest  supremacy  with  Spaniard, 
Frenchman,  or  any  one  else ;  but  her  lingering  desires  to 
avoid  open  conflict  at  any  cheap  rate  had  tended  to  fix 
her  settlements  on  the  very  choicest  part  of  the  coast,  in 
the  middle  latitudes,  —  a  fact  which  was  to  color  the 
whole  future  history  of  the  continent.  The  concurrent 
claims  of  the  two  English  companies  in  the  central  zone 
seem  to  have  deterred  both  of  them  from  any  attempt  to 
interfere  with  the  development  of  a  colony  there  by  the 
only  other  people  of  western  Europe  which  was  prepared 
The  Dutch  to  grasp  at  such  an  opportunity.  The  Dutch 
settlements.  (1609)  sent  out  Henry  Hudson,  an  English 
man  in  their  service,  and  he  made  the  first  close  explora 
tion  of  this  central  region.  Dutch  merchants  thereupon 
set  up  a  trading  post  at  Manhadoes  (the  present  city  of 
New  York),  where  a  government  under  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company  was  organized  in  1621,  when  the  Dutch 
states-general  had  granted  the  territory  to  it.  The  terri 
tory  was  named  New  Netherland,  and  the  town  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Hudson  river  New  Amsterdam.  Sweden 
sent  a  colony  to  Delaware  bay  in  1638 ;  but  the  attempt 
was  never  thoroughly  backed,  and  in  1655  it  was  surren 
dered  to  the  Dutch. 

8.  By  the  time  of  the  Restoration  in  England,  the 
northern  and  southern  English  colonies  had  developed  so 
far  that  the  existence  of  this  alien  element  between  them 
had  come  to  be  a  recognized  annoyance  and  danger.  From 


COLONIZATION. 


the  Hudson  river  to  Maine,  from  the  Savannah  river  to 
Delaware  Bay,  all  was  English.    Eoads  had  been  roughly 
marked  out ;  ships  were  sailing  along  the  respective  coasts 
as  if  at  home ;  colonial  governments  were  beginning  to  lean 
upon  one  another  for  support ;  but  between  the  two  was 
a  territory  which  might  at  any  moment  turn  to  hostility. 
There   was   an   evidently   growing   disposition   in  New 
England  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  it  unaided.     When 
England  and  Holland  found  themselves  at  war  (1664), 
the  opportunity  arrived  for  a  blow  at  Holland's  colonial 
possessions.     An  English  army  and  fleet  under  Colonel 
Nichols  touched  at  Boston,  and,  proceeding  thence  to  New 
Amsterdam,  took  possession  of  the  whole  central  terri 
tory.     It  had  been  granted  by  the  king  to  his  brother, 
the  duke  of  York,  and  the  province  and  city  were  now 
named  New  York  in  honor  of  the  new  pro-  The  co|ony  of 
prietor.     The  duke,  the  same  year,  granted  a     New  York; 
part  of  his  territory  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret,  and  the 
new  colony  of  New  Jersey  was  the   result.   of  New  Jersey . 
In  1681  the  great  parallelogram  west  of  New     of  pennsyi- 
Jersey  was  granted  to  Penn  and  called  Penn-        vania ; 
sylvania.     In  the  following  year  Penn  bought  from  the 
duke  of  York  the  little  piece  of  territory  which  remained 
united  to  Pennsylvania  until   the  revolution,  then  be 
coming  the  State  of  Delaware.     The  central 
territory  thus    furnished   four   of    the    "  old 
thirteen  "  colonies,  New  England  four,  and  the  southern 
portion  five. 

9.    If  there  was  any  governing  idea  in  the  organization 
of  the  colonial  governments,  it  was  of   the    The  coioniai 
rudest  kind ;  and  in  fact  each  was  allowed  to  g°vemments. 
be   so  largely  modified   by  circumstances   that,  with   a 
general  similarity,  there  was  the  widest  possible  diver- 


8  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

gence.  A  general  division  of  the  colonial  governments 
The  charter  is  into  charter,  proprietary,  and  royal  govern- 
coionies.  ments.  The  charter  governments  were  Mas 
sachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island.  In  these  the 
colonial  governments  had  charters  from  the  crown,  giving 
the  people,  or  freemen,  the  right  to  choose  their  own 
governors  and  other  magistrates,  to  make  their  own  laws, 
and  to  interpret  and  enforce  them.  Only  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  kept  their  charters  intact.  The  Massa 
chusetts  charter  was  cancelled  by  the  crown  judges  (1684) 
under  a  quo  warranto;  and  in  1691  a  new  charter  was 
granted.  As  it  reserved  to  the  crown  the  appointment  of 
the  governor,  with  an  absolute  veto  on  laws  and  after 
1726  on  the  election  of  the  speaker  of  the  lower  house, 
Massachusetts  was  thus  taken  out  of  the  class  of  purely 
charter  colonies  and  put  into  that  of  a  semi-royal  colony. 
The  proprietary  colonies  were  New  Hampshire,  New 
The  proprietary  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  (including 
colonies.  Delaware),  Maryland,  Carolina,  and  Georgia. 
These  were  granted  to  proprietors,  who,  as  inducements 
to  settlers,  granted  governmental  privileges  almost  as 
liberal  as  those  of  the  charter  colonies.  Only  Penn 
sylvania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland  remained  proprietary 
colonies  down  to  the  revolution,  and  in  these  the  gov 
ernor  had  a  charter  right  of  veto  on  legislation.  Vir- 
The  royai  ginia  became  a  royal  colony  in  1620,  and 
colonies.  ]^ew  York  as  soon  as  its  proprietor  became 
king  j  and  other  proprietors,  becoming  tired  of  continual 
quarrels  with  the  colonists,  gradually  surrendered  their 
grants  to  the  crown.  New  Hampshire,  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  had  thus 
become  royal  colonies  before  the  revolution.  In  the  royal 
colonies,  commonly  called  provinces,  the  governors  were 


COLONIZATION  9 


appointed  by  the  crown,  and  had  an  absolute  veto  on 
legislation.  There  were  thus  at  last  three  proprietary, 
seven  royal,  one  semi-royal,  and  two  charter  colonies. 

10.  The  two  charter  colonies  were  simple   Representative 
representative  democracies,  having  the  power       systems, 
to  legislate  without  even  a  practical  appeal  to  the  crown, 
and  having  no  royal  governor  or  agent  within  their  bor 
ders.     Their  systems  were  the  high-water  mark  to  which 
the  desires  and  claims  of  the  other  colonies  gradually 
approached.     Massachusetts  and  the  proprietary  colonies 
were  very  nearly  on  a  level  with  them ;  and  the  royal  or 
proprietary  governor's  veto  power  was  rather  an  annoy 
ance   than   a  fundamental   difference.     But   in   all  the 
colonies   representative   governments   had   forced    their 
way,  and  had  very  early  taken  a  bicameral  shape.     In 
the  charter  colonies  and  Massachusetts  the  lower  house 
was  chosen  by  the  towns  and  the  upper  house  from  the 
people  at  large,  and  the  two  houses  made  up  the  "as 
sembly."     In  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  there  was  but 
one  house.     In  the  royal  colonies  and  in  Maryland  the 
lower  house  alone  was  elected  by  the  people ;  the  upper 
house,  or  council,  was  chosen  by  the  crown  through  the 
governor ;  and  the  assent  of  all  three  elements  was  essen 
tial  to  legislation.     In  the  final  revolution  the  charter 
colonies  did  not  change  their  governments  at  all ;  they 
already  had  what  they  wanted.     The  revolution  was  con 
summated  in  the  other  colonies  by  the  assumption  of 
power  by  the  lower  or  popular  house,  usually  known  as  the 
"assembly,"  the  governor  or  council,  or  both,  being  ousted. 

11.  All  these  governmental  organizations        Town 
take  a  prominent  place  in  American  history,    and  Parish> 
and  had  a  strong  influence  on  the  ultimate  development 
of  the  United  States ;  and  yet  they  touched  the  life  of 


10  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

the  people  at  comparatively  few  points.  A  more  marked 
and  important  distinction  is  in  the  local  organizations 
of  the  northern  and  southern  colonies.  All  the  southern 
colonies  began  as  proprietary  governments.  Settlers 
went  there  as  individuals  connected  only  with  the 
colony.  To  the  individual  the  colony  was  the  great 
political  factor ;  his  only  other  connection  was  with  his 
parish,  to  which  the  colony  allowed  few  political  func 
tions  ;  and,  where  political  power  touched  him  at  all,  it 
was  through  the  colony.  In  time  it  became  necessary  to 
allow  political  powers  to  the  parish  or  county,  but  they 
were  really  more  judicial  than  political.  "The  southern 
county  was  a  modified  English  shire,  with  the  towns  left 
out."  The  whole  tendency  shows  the  character  of  the 
immigration  in  this  part  of  the  country,  from  English 
districts  outside  of  the  influence  of  the  towns. 

12.  In  New  England  local  organization  was  quite  dif 
ferent.  A  good  example  is  the  town  of  Dorchester. 
The  Organized  (March  20,  1630)  in  Plymouth, 
town  system.  England,  when  its  people  were  on  the  point 
of  embarkation  for  America,  it  took  the  shape  of  a  dis 
tinct  town  and  church  before  they  went  on  shipboard. 
Its  civil  and  ecclesiastical  organizations  were  complete 
before  they  landed  in  Massachusetts  Bay  and  came 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  chartered  company.  Its 
people  governed  themselves,  in  their  town  government, 
in  all  but  a  few  points,  in  which  the  colony  asserted 
superiority.  As  the  colony's  claims  increased,  the  town's 
dissatisfaction  increased.  In  1635  the  town  migrated  in 
a  body,  with  its  civil  and  ecclesiastical  organization  still 
intact,  into  the  vacant  territory  of  Connecticut,  and  there 
became  the  town  of  Windsor.  Here,  uniting  with  other 
towns,  which  had  migrated  in  a  similar  fashion,  it  formed 


COLONIZATION.  11 


the  new  Commonwealth  of  Connecticut,  in  which  the 
local  liberty  of  the  towns  was  fully  secured  in  the  frame 
of  government.  Rhode  Island  was  formed  in  the  same 
way,  by  separate  towns;  Vermont  afterwards  in  the 
same  way ;  and  the  towns  of  the  parent  colony  of  Mas 
sachusetts  learned  to  claim  a  larger  liberty  than  had 
been  possible  at  first.  Thus,  all  through  New  England, 
the  local  town  organizations  came  to  monopolize  almost 
all  ordinary  governmental  powers  ;  and  the  counties  to 
which  the  towns  belonged  were  judicial,  not  political, 
units,  marking  merely  the  jurisdiction  of  the  sheriff.  In 
the  annual  town  meetings,  and  in  special  meetings  from 
time  to  time,  the  freemen  exercised,  without  any  formal 
grant,  the  powers  of  self-taxation,  of  expenditure  of 
taxation,  of  trial  by  jury,  and  of  a  complete  local  gov 
ernment.  Further,  the  lower  houses  of  their  colonial 
legislatures  were  made  up  of  generally  equal  represen 
tations  from  the  towns,  while  the  upper  houses  were 
chosen  from  the  colony  at  large.  In  this  was  the  germ 
of  the  subsequent  development  of  the  United  States 
senate,  in  which  the  States  are  equally  represented,  and 
of  the  house  of  representatives,  representing  the  people 
numerically  (§§  104,  105,  109,  110). 

13.    The  two  opposite  systems  of  the  north  and  south 
found  a  field  for  conflict  in  the  organization  of  the  cen 
tral  territory  after  its  acquisition  (§  8).     The    The  midd,e 
crown  agents  were  strongly  disposed  to  follow      colonies, 
the  more  centralized  system  of  the  southern  colonies, 
though  Penn,  having  organized  counties  and  restricted 
his  legislature  to  a  single  house,  based  it  on  the  counties. 
In  New  York  and  New  Jersey  the  Dutch  system   of 
"  patroonships  "  had  left  a  simulacrum  of  local  indepen 
dence,  and  a  stronger  tendency  in  the  same  direction 


12  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

came  in  through  immigration  from  New  England.  To 
encourage  this  immigration,  the  New  Jersey  proprietors 
gave  town  powers  to  many  of  them ;  and  some  of  the 
New  Jersey  towns  were  merely  transplanted  New  Eng 
land  towns.  But  the  middle  colonies  never  arrived  at 
any  distinct  system ;  at  the  best,  their  system  was  a 
conglomerate.  Much  the  same  result  has  been  reached 
in  the  new  Western  States,  organized  under  the  care  of 
the  Federal  Government,  where  the  New  England  immi 
gration  has  brought  with  it  a  demand  for  local  self- 
government  which  has  resulted  in  a  compromise  between 
the  two  systems  of  town  units  and  county  units. 

14.  Ecclesiastical  divisions  were  at  first  as  strong  as 
civil  diversities.  The  New  England  colonies  were  Con- 
Ecciesiasticai  gregational,  and  these  churches  were  estab- 
systems.  Hshed  and  supported  by  law,  except  in  Rhode 
Island,  where  the  Baptists  were  numerically  superior. 
In  the  royal  colonies  generally  there  was  a  steady  dispo 
sition  to  establish  the  Church  of  England,  and  it  was 
more  or  less  successful.  In  language  there  were  striking 
dissimilarities,  due  to  a  most  heterogeneous  immigration. 
It  was  said  that  every  language  of  Europe  could  be 
found  in  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  But,  after  all, 
this  diversity  had  no  indications  of  persistence ;  the  im 
migration  in  each  case  had  been  too  small  to 
support  itself.  Very  little  of  the  wonderful 
increase  of  American  population  between  1607  and  1750 
was  due  to  immigration ;  most  of  it  had  come  from  natu 
ral  increase.  After  the  first  outflow  from  Old  to  New 
England,  in  1630-31,  emigration  was  checked  at  first  by 
the  changing  circumstances  of  the  struggle  between  the 
people  and  the  king,  and,  when  the  struggle  was  over, 
by  the  better-known  difficulties  of  life  in  the  colonies. 


COLONIZATION-.  13 


Franklin,  in  1751,  when  he  estimated  that  there  were 
"  near  a  million  English  souls  "  in  the  colonies,  thought 
that  scarce  eighty  thousand  had  been  brought  over  by 
sea.  No  matter  how  diverse  the  small  immigration 
might  have  been  on  its  arrival,  there  was  a  steady  pres 
sure  on  its  descendants  to  turn  them  into  Englishmen ; 
and  it  was  very  successful.  When  Whitefield,  the  revival 
ist,  visited  America  about  1740,  he  found  the  population 
sufficiently  homogeneous  for  his  preaching  to  take  effect, 
all  the  way  from  Georgia  to  New  England.  The  same 
tendency  shows  itself  in  the  complete  freedom  of  inter 
colonial  migration.  Men  went  from  one  colony  to  an 
other,  or  held  estates,  or  took  inheritances  in  different 
colonies,  without  the  slightest  notion  that  they  were 
under  any  essentially  diverse  political  conditions.  The 
whole  coast,  from  Nova  Scotia  to  the  Spanish  possessions 
in  Florida,  was  one  in  all  essential  circumstances ;  and 
there  was  only  the  need  of  some  sudden  shock  to  crys 
tallize  it  into  a  real  political  unity.  Hardly  anything  in 
history  is  more  impressive  than  this  mustering  of  Eng 
lishmen  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  their 
organization  of  natural  and  simple  governments,  and 
their  preparations  for  the  final  march  of  3000  miles  west 
ward,  unless  it  be  the  utter  ignorance  of  the  home  Gov 
ernment  and  people  that  any  such  process  was  going  on. 
15.  This  ignorance  had  one  singular  effect  in  com 
pleting  the  difference  between  the  new  and  the 
old  country.  An  odd  belief  that  European 
plants  and  animals  degenerated  in  size  and  quality  on 
transplantation  to  the  western  continent  was  persistent 
at  the  time  even  among  learned  men  in  Europe,  and 
Jefferson  felt  bound  to  take  great  pains  to  combat  it  so 
late  as  the  end  of  the  18th  century.  That  passage  in 


14  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Thackeray's  Virginians,  where  the  head  of  the  elder 
Virginian  branch  of  the  family  returns  to  England,  to  be 
treated  with  contempt  and  indifference  by  the  younger 
branch  which  had  remained  at  home,  indicates  the  state 
of  mind  among  the  influential  classes  in  England  which 
bent  them  against  any  admission  of  Americans  to  the 
honors  or  privileges  of  the  English  higher  classes.  A 
few  titles  were  given;  entails  were  maintained  in  the 
southern  colonies  ;  but  there  were  no  such  systematic 
efforts  as  are  necessary  to  maintain  an  aristocratic  class. 
This  may  have  been  gratifying  to  the  ruling  class  in 
England ;  but  it  was  in  reality  an  unconsciously  syste 
matic  effort  to  develop  democracy  in  the  English  colonies 
in  North  America.  In  combination  with  the  free  repre 
sentative  institutions  which  had  taken  root  there,  it  was 
very  successful,  and,  when  the  final  struggle  between  the 
English  ruling  class  and  the  colonists  took  shape,  the 
former  had  singularly  few  friends  or  allies  in  the  colonies. 
What  the  results  might  have  been  if  efforts  had  been 
made  to  build  up  a  titled  class  in  the  colonies,  with 
entailed  revenues  and  hereditary  privileges  in  the  upper 
houses  of  the  colonial  legislatures,  is  not  easy  to  imagine  ; 
but  the  prejudices  of  the  privileged  classes  at  home 
eliminated  this  factor  from  the  problem.  Every  influence 
conduced  to  make  the  American  commonwealths  repre 
sentative  democracies ;  and  the  reservation  of  crown  in 
fluence  in  the  functions  of  the  governors  or  the  appoint 
ment  of  the  council  was  merely  a  dam  which  was  sure 
to  be  broken  down  as  development  increased. 

16.  Social  circumstances  had  all  the  features  of  life  in 
Sociai  a  new  country,  aggravated  by  the  difficulties 

conditions.  of  inter-communication  at  that  time.  In  the 
southern  and  middle  colonies  there  was  a  rude  abundance, 


COLONIZATION.  15 


so  that,  however  much  the  want  of  luxuries  might  be  felt, 
there  was  no  lack  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  growth 
of  tobacco,  indigo,  and  rice  in  the  southern  colonies  was 
so  large  a  source  of  wealth  that  luxury  in  that  part  of 
the  country  had  taken  a  more  pronounced  form  than  in . 
the  others.  The  southern  planter,  trained  in  English 
schools  and  universities  and  admitted  to  the  English  bar, 
was  more  like  an  English  gentleman  in  a  condition  of 
temporary  retirement  than  an  American  colonist.  The 
settler  of  the  middle  colonies  was  the  ordinary  agricul 
turist.  The  hardships  of  colonial  life  were  the  special 
lot  of  the  New  England  colonist.  For  some  reason  — 
perhaps  because  the  forests  retained  the  snow  on  the 
ground  —  the  New  England  winters  were  more  severe 
than  they  are  now.  The  rudely  built  house,  with  its 
enormous  chimney  attracting  draughts  of  outer  air  from 
every  point,  was  a  poor  protection  against  the  cold. 
Travel,  difficult  enough  at  the  best,  became  impossible  in 
winter,  unless  the  snow  rose  so  high  as  to  blot  out  the 
roads  and  permit  the  traveller  to  drive  his  sledge  across 
country.  Medical  and  surgical  attendance  was  scarce  in 
summer,  and  hardly  dreamed  of  in  winter.  The  religious 
feeling  of  the  people  was  against  amusements  of  all 
kinds,  except  going  to  funerals,  an  occasional  dinner,  and 
the  restricted  enjoyments  of  courtship.  It  was  a  point 
of  honor  or  of  religious  feeling  to  exclude  luxury  from 
church  equipment :  stoves  were  not  known  in  Connecticut 
churches  until  the  beginning  of  this  century,  and  yet 
new-born  infants  were  taken  to  church  for  baptism  in  the 
bitterest  weather.1 


1  An  extract  from  a  New  England  diary  of  1716  will  give  some  notion 
of  social  circumstances  at  that  comparatively  late  period.     "  Lord's 


16  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

17.  Wealth  in  the  southern  colonies  was  sufficient  to 

give  the  better  classes  there  an  education  of  a  very  high 

order :  and  they  in  turn,  by  virtue  of  their  polit- 

Education.  ^  '.    J . 

ical  and  social  leadership,  imparted  something 
of  their  acquisitions  to  those  below  them.  In  the  middle 
colonies  commercial  pursuits  and  those  interests  which 
go  to  make  men  of  affairs  had  something  of  the  same  in 
fluence  on  special  classes.  In  New  England  education  was 
more  general,  even  though  it  had  no  such  advantages  for 
special  classes  as  at  the  south.  The  first  immigration 
into  New  England  contained  an  unusually  large  propor 
tion  of  English  university  men,  particularly  among  the 
ministers.  These  fixed  the  mould  into  which  their  de 
scendants  have  been  run,  and  New  England's  influence 
in  the  United  States  has  been  due  largely  to  them.  The 
town  system  added  to  their  influence.  Owing  to  it  the 
ebbing  and  flowing  of  population  through  New  England 
was  not  blind  or  unorganized.  Every  little  town  was  a 
skeleton  battalion,  to  be  filled  up  by  subsequent  increase 
and  immigration ;  and  the  ministers  and  other  profes 
sional  men  made  a  multitude  of  successors  for  themselves, 
with  all  their  own  ideas.  Considering  the  execrable 
quality  of  school  and  college  instruction  in  New  England, 
as  elsewhere  at  the  time,  it  is  very  remarkable  that,  as 
the  original  supply  of  university-bred  leaders  died  off, 
there  was  a  full  crop  of  American-bred  men  quite  pre 
pared  to  take  their  places  and  carry  on  their  work.  Here 

Day,  Jany.  15.  An  extraordinary  cold  Storm  of  wind  and  Snow.  Blows 
much  as  coming  home  at  Noon  and  so  holds  on.  Bread  was  frozen  at 
the  Lord's  table;  Mr.  Pemberton  administered.  Came  not  out  to  after 
noon  exercise.  Though  'twas  so  cold,  yet  John  Tuckerman  was  bap 
tised.  At  six  a-clock  my  ink  freezes  so  that  I  can  hardly  write  by  a 
good  fire  in  my  wive's  chamber.  Yet  was  very  comfortable  at  meeting. 
Laus  Deo." 


COLONIZATION.  17 


were  Harvard  and  Yale,  the  two  leading  colleges  of  the 
country,  which  in  1760  had  six :  —  Harvard  College,  in 
Massachusetts  (founded  in  1636)  ;  William  and  Mary 
College,  in  Virginia  (1692)  ;  Yale  College,  in  Connecticut 
(1700)  ;  Princeton  College,  in  New  Jersey  (1746) ;  Penn 
sylvania  University  (1749) ;  and  King's,  now  Columbia, 
College,  in  New  York  (1754). 

18.  Shipwrights  had  been  sent  to  Virginia  at  an  early 
date ;  but  shipbuilding  never  made  great  head  in  the 
southern  colonies,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 

Commerce. 

they  had  all  the  materials  for  it  in  abundance. 
At  a  later  period  ships  were  built,  and  it  was  not  uncom 
mon  for  planters  to  have  their  private  docks  on  their 
own  plantations,  where  their  ships  were  freighted  for 
Europe.  But  such  building  was  individual :  each  planter 
built  only  for  himself.  The  first  vessel  built  by  Euro 
peans  in  this  part  of  the  continent  was  constructed  by 
Adrian  Block  at  New  Amsterdam  (1614).  Many  small 
vessels  were  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  river 
under  Dutch  and  English  domination,  but  New  York's 
commercial  supremacy  did  not  fairly  begin  until  after  the 
revolution.  Perhaps  the  hardships  of  life  in  New  Eng 
land  made  its  people  prefer  water  to  land ;  at  any  rate 
they  took  to  shipbuilding  early  and  carried  it  on  dili 
gently  and  successfully.  Plymouth  built  a  little  vessel 
before  the  settlement  was  five  years  old,  and  Massachu 
setts  another,  the  "Blessing  of  the  Bay"  (1631).  Be 
fore  1650  New  England  vessels  had  begun  the  general 
foreign  trade,  from  port  to  port,  which  combined  exporta 
tion  with  a  foreign  coasting  trade  and  mercantile  business, 
the  form  in  which  New  England  commercial  enterprise 
was  to  show  itself  most  strongly.  Before  1724  English 
ship-carpenters  complained  of  the  competition  of  the 


18  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Americans,  and  in  1760  the  colonies  were  building  new 
ships  at  the  rate  of  about  20,000  tons  a  year,  most  of 
them  being  sold  in  England. 

19.  The   earliest   manufactures  in  the   colonies  were 
naturally  those  of  the  simplest  kind,  the  products  of  saw- 
Manufactures  mills,  grist-mills,  and   tanneries,    and   home- 
and  mining.   macie  cloth.     The  search  for  ores,  however,  had 

been  a  prime  cause  of  immigration  with  many  of  the 
settlers,  and  they  turned  almost  at  once  to  mining  and 
metallurgy.  Most  of  their  efforts  failed,  in  spite  of 
"  premiums,"  bounties,  and  monopolies  for  terms  of  years 
granted  by  the  colonial  legislatures.  To  this  the  produc 
tion  of  iron  was  an  exception.  It  was  produced,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  18th  century,  in  western  Massachu 
setts  and  Connecticut,  in  eastern  New  York,  in  northern 
New  Jersey,  and  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  All  these 
districts  were  about  on  a  level,  until  the  adaptation  of 
the  furnaces  to  the  use  of  anthracite  coal  drove  the  New 
England  and  New  York  districts,  which  had  depended 
on  wood  as  fuel,  almost  out  of  competition  (§  210).  Until 
that  time  iron  production  was  a  leading  New  England 
industry.  Not  only  were  the  various  products  of  iron 
exported  largely  ;  the  manufacture  of  nails,  and  of  other 
articles  which  could  be  made  by  an  industrious  agricul 
tural  population  in  winter  and  stormy  weather,  was  a 
"  home  industry  "  on  which  New  Englanders  depended 
for  much  of  their  support. 

20.  The  colonial   system  of   England  differed  in  no 
respect  from  that  of  other  European  nations  of  the  time ; 

The  English  probably  none  of  them  could  have  conceived 
colonial  system.  anv  Other  as  possible.  The  colonies  were  to 
be  depots  for  the  distribution  of  home  products  on 
a  new  soil;  whenever  they  assumed  any  other  func- 


COLONIZATION.  '  '  19 


tions  they  were  to  be  checked.  The  attempts  of  the 
Americans  to  engage  in  commerce  with  other  nations, 
their  shipbuilding,  and  their  growing  manufactures  were, 
in  appearance,  deductions  from  the  general  market  of 
English  producers,  and  the  home  Government  felt  itself 
bound  to  interfere.  Virginia  claimed,  by  charter- right, 
the  power  to  trade  freely  with  foreign  nations;  and 
Virginia  was  notoriously  on  the  side  of  the  Stuarts 
against  the  parliament.  In  1651  parliament  passed  the 
Navigation  Act,  forbidding  the  carrying  of  The  Naviga. 
colonial  produce  to  England  unless  in  English  tion  Laws> 
or  colonial  vessels,  with  an  English  captain  and  crew. 
By  the  Act  of  1661  the  reach  of  the  system  was  extended. 
Sugar,  tobacco,  indigo,  and  other  "enumerated  articles," 
grown  or  manufactured  in  the  colonies,  were  not  to  be 
shipped  to  any  country  but  England.  All  that  was  neces 
sary  to  make  this  part  of  the  work  complete  was  to  add 
to  the  "enumerated  articles,"  from  time  to  time,  any 
which  should  become  important  colonial  products.  The 
cap-stone  was  placed  on  the  system  in  1663,  when  the 
exportation  of  European  products  to  the  colonies  was 
forbidden,  unless  in  vessels  owned  and  loaded  as  in  the 
preceding  Acts  and  loaded  in  England.  Virginia's  com 
merce  withered  at  once  under  the  enforcement  of  the 
system.  New  England,  allowed  to  evade  the  system  by 
Cromwell  for  political  reasons,  continued  to  evade  it 
thereafter  by  smuggling  and  bold  seamanship. 

21.    In  1699,  on  complaint  of  English  manufacturers 
that  the  colonists  were  cutting  them  out  of  their  foreign 
wool  markets,  parliament  enacted  that  no  wool     Restrictive 
or   woollen  manufactures  should  be  shipped        Laws- 
from  any  of  the  colonies,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of 
ship  and  cargo.     This  was  the  first  fruits  of  the  appoint- 


20  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

ment  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations  three  years 
before.  From  this  time  until  the  revolution,  this  body  was 
never  idle ;  but,  as  its  work  was  almost  confined  to  schemes 
for  checking  or  destroying  the  trade  and  manufactures  of 
the  plantations,  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  done  them  any 
great  service.  It  was  continually  spurring  on  colonial 
governors  to  turn  their  people  to  the  production  of  naval 
stores,  or  to  any  occupation  which  would  divert  them 
from  manufactures ;  and  the  governors,  between  fear  of 
the  legislatures  which  paid  their  salaries  and  of  the 
Board  which  was  watching  them  narrowly,  had  evidently 
no  easy  position.  At  intervals  the  Board  heard  the  com 
plaints  of  English  manufacturers,  and  framed  remedial 
bills  for  parliament.  From  1718  the  manufacture  of  iron 
was  considered  particularly  obnoxious ;  and,  so  late  as 
1766,  Pitt  himself  asserted  the  right  and  duty  of  parlia 
ment  to  "bind  the  trade  and  confine  the  manufactures" 
of  the  colonies,  and  to  do  all  but  tax  them  without  repre 
sentation.  In  1719  parliament  passed  its  first  prohibi 
tion  of  iron  manufactures  in  the  colonies ;  and  in  1750 
it  forbade  under  penalties  the  maintaining  of  iron-mills, 
slitting  or  rolling  mills,  plating-forges,  and  steel-furnaces 
in  the  colonies.  At  the  same  time,  but  as  a  favor  to 
English  manufacturers,  it  allowed  the  importation  of 
American  bar-iron  into  England,  as  it  was  cheaper  and 
better  than  the  Swedish.  Before  this,  in  1731,  parlia 
ment  had  forbidden  the  manufacture  or  exportation  of 
hats  in  or  from  the  colonies,  and  even  their  transporta 
tion  from  one  colony  to  another.  All  these  Acts,  and 
others  of  a  kindred  nature,  were  persistently  evaded  or 
defied ;  but  the  constant  training  in  this  direction  was 
not  a  good  one  for  the  maintenance  of  the  connection 
between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country,  after  the 


COL  ONIZA  TION.  21 


interested  classes  in  the  colonies  should  become  numerous 
and  their  interests  large.  Unluckily  for  the  connection, 
the  arrival  at  this  point  was  just  the  time. when  the 
attempt  was  first  made  to  enforce  the  Acts  with  vigor 
(§  38). 

22.  English  imports  from  the  North  American  colonies 
amounted  to  £395,000  in  1700,  £574,000  in  1730,  and 
£761,000  in  1760 ;  the  exports  to  the  colonies   The  American 
in  the  same  years  were  £344,000,  £537,000,       market- 
and   £2,612,000.      In  spite  of  parliamentary  exactions 
and   interferences,   a    great    and   entirely  new   market 
had   been    opened   to   English   trade.      The   difference 
between  the  year  1606,  when  there  was  not  an  English 
settler  on  the  North- American  continent,  and  1760,  when 
there  were  a  million  and  a  half  with  a  great  and  growing 
commerce,  is  remarkable.     It  is  still  more  remarkable 
when   one   considers  that  this  population  was  already 
nearly  one-fourth  of  that  of  England  and  Wales.     Its 
growth,  however,  steadily  increased  the  difficulties  of 
maintaining  the  English  system  of  control,  which  con 
sisted  mainly  in  the  interference  of  the  governors  with 
legislation  proposed  by  the  assemblies.     As  the  numbers 
and  material   interests   of  the   subjects   increased,   the 
necessities  for  governmental  interference  increased  with 
them,  and  yet  the  power  of  the  subjects  to  coerce  the 
governors  increased  as  well.     Only  time  was  needed  to 
bring  the  divergence  to  a  point  where  change  of  policy 
must  have  disruption  as  its  only  alternative. 

23.  Merely  material  prosperity,  the  development  of 
wealth  and  comfort,  was  very  far  from  the  whole  work 
of  the   colonies.      In   spite   of   attempts   in     Reiigj0us 
almost  every  colony  to  establish  some  form      freedom. 

of  religious  belief  on  a  government  foundation,  religious 


22  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

freedom  had  really  come  to  prevail  to  an  extent  very 
uncommon  elsewhere  at  the  time.  Even  in  New  Eng 
land,  where  the  theory  of  the  state  as  an  isolated  oppor 
tunity  for  the  practice  of  a  particular  form  of  worship 
had  been  held  most  strongly,  persecution  was  directed 
chiefly  against  the  Quakers,  and  that  mainly  on  semi- 
political  grounds,  because  of  their  determination  to  annoy 
congregations  in  their  worship  or  to  outrage  some  feeling 
of  propriety.  As  soon  as  it  came  to  be  realized  that  the 
easiest  method  to  deprive  them  of  the  power  of  annoy 
ance  was  to  ignore  them,  that  method  was  adopted; 
indeed,  two  of  the  New  England  colonies  took  hardly 
any  other  method  from  the  beginning. 

24.  In  political  work  the  colonies  had  been  very  suc 
cessful.  They  had  built  up  thirteen  distinct  political 
Political  units,  representative  democracies  so  simple 
freedom.  an(j  natural  in  their  political  structure  that 
time  has  hardly  changed  the  essential  nature  of  the 
American  State  governments.  In  so  doing,  the  Ameri 
cans  were  really  laying  the  foundations  of  the  future 
national  structure,  for  there  is  hardly  a  successful  fea 
ture  in  the  present  national  government  which  was  not 
derived  or  directly  copied  from  the  original  colonial 
growths ;  while  the  absolutely  new  features,  such  as  the 
electoral  system  (§  119),  introduced  into  the  national 
system  by  way  of  experiment,  have  almost  as  generally 
proved  failures,  and  have  been  diverted  from  their  origi 
nal  purposes  or  have  become  obsolete. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION.  23 

II. 

THE   STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION. 
1750-63. 

25.  THE  English  settlements  along  the  Atlantic  had 
covered  the  narrow  strip  of  coast  territory  quite  thor 
oughly  before  it  was  possible  to  think  of  expansion  west 
ward.  Since  about  1605  Canada  had  been  undisputedly 
in  the  hands  of  the  French.  Their  traders  _.  _ 

The  French 

and  missionaries  had  entered  the  present  m  Canada 
western  United  States ;  Marquette  and  Joliet 
(1673)  and  La  Salle  (1682)  had  explored  the  upper 
Mississippi  river,  and  others,  following  their  track,  had 
explored  most  of  the  Mississippi  valley  and  had  built 
forts  in  various  parts  of  it.  About  1700  the  French 
opened  ground  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi :  D'lber- 
ville  (1702)  founded  Mobile  and  the  French  Mississippi 
Company  (1718)  founded  the  city  of  New  Orleans.  Con 
sistent  design,  foiled  at  last  only  by  failure  of  material, 
marks  the  proceedings  of  the  French  commanders  in 
America  for  the  next  thirty  years.  New  Orleans  and 
Quebec  were  the  extremities  of  a  line  of  well-placed  forts 
which  were  to  secure  the  whole  Mississippi  valley,  and 
to  confine  the  English  settlements  forever  to  the  strip  of 
land  along  the  coast  bounded  on  the  west  by  the  Ap 
palachian  or  Alleghany  range  of  mountains,  which  is 
parallel  to  the  coast  and  has  but  one  important  break  in 
its  barrier,  the  opening  through  which  the  Hudson  river 
flows.  The  practical  genius  of  the  French  plans  is  shown 


24  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

by  the  fact  that  so  many  of  these  old  forts  have  since 
become  the  sites  of  great  and  nourishing  western  cities  : 
Natchez,  Vincennes,  Peoria,  Fort  Wayne,  Toledo,  Detroit, 
Ogdensburgh,  and  Montreal  either  are  built  on  or  are 
so  near  to  the  old  forts  as  to  testify  to  the  skill  and 
foresight  against  which  the  English  colonies  had  to  con 
tend.  To  this  whole  territory,  extending  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  to  that  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  covering 
even  the  western  part  of  the  present  State  of  New  York, 
the  name  of  New  France  was  given.  The  English  pos 
sessions,  extending  in  hardly  any  place  more  than  a 
hundred  miles  from  the  ocean,  except  where  the  Dutch 
had  long  ago  planted  the  outpost  of  Fort  Orange,  or 
Albany,  on  the  upper  Hudson,  were  generally  restricted 
to  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  coast,  to  which 
the  early  population  had  naturally  clung  as  its  base  of 
supplies. 

26.  The  French  difficulties  were  even  greater  than 
those  of  the  English.  The  French  people  had  never  had 

weakness  *^at  love  of  emigration  which  had  given  the 
of  the  English  colonies  their  first  great  impetus. 

Drench  system.    Even  ^^    ^    French    settled    they  showed 

more  of  a  disposition  to  coalesce  with  the  native  popula 
tion  than  to  form  a  homogeneous  people.  The  French 
were  commonly  far  stronger  with  the  Indians  than  were 
the  English ;  but  at  the  end  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
when  the  English  colonists  numbered  a  million  and  a 
quarter,  all  animated  by  the  same  political  purposes,  the 
population  of  all  New  France  was  only  about  100,000, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether  there  were  7500  in  the  whole 
Mississippi  valley.  The  whole  French  system,  wisely  as 
it  was  designed,  was  subject  to  constant  and  fatal  inter 
ference  from  a  corrupt  court.  Its  own  organization  was 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION.  25 

hampered  by  attempts  to  introduce  the  feudal  features 
of  home  social  life.  A  way  was  thus  opened  to  exactions 
from  every  agent  of  the  court,  to  which  the  people  sub 
mitted  with  hereditary  patience,  but  which  were  fatal  to 
all  healthy  development.  Perhaps  worst  of  all  was  the 
natural  and  inevitable  formation  of  the  French  line  of 
claims.  Trending  westward  from  Quebec  to  meet  the 
northward  line  of  forts  from  New  Orleans,  it  was  bent  at 
the  junction  of  the  two  parts,  about  Detroit,  and  its  most 
important  part  lay  right  athwart  the  path  of  advancing 
English  migration.  The  English  wave  was  thus  to  strike 
the  weaker  French  line  in  flank  and  at  its  weakest  point, 
so  that  the  final  issue  could  not  in  any  event  have  been 
doubtful.  The  French  and  Indian  war  probably  only 
hastened  the  result. 

27.  There  had  been  wars  between  the  French  and  the 
English  colonies  since  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary, 
mostly  accessory  to  wars  between  the  mother  inter-coioniai 
countries.  The  colonies  had  taken  part  in  the  wars- 
wars  ended  by  the  peace  of  Eyswick  (1697),  the  peace 
of  Utrecht  (1713),  and  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
(1748).  The  alliance  of  the  French  and  Indians  made 
all  these  struggles  wretched  experiences  for  the  English. 
The  province  of  Canada  became  a  prison-pen,  where  cap 
tives  were  held  to  ransom  or  adopted-  into  savage  tribes. 
Outlying  settlements  were  broken  up,  or  forced  to  expend 
a  large  part  of  their  energy  in  watchful  self-defence ;  and 
it  required  all  the  persistence  of  the  English  colonies  to 
continue  their  steady  forward  movement.  Nevertheless 
they  even  undertook  offensive  operations.  They  captured 
Port  Koyal  in  1690,  but  it  was  given  up  to  the  French  in 
1697.  They  captured  it  again  in  1710,  and  this  time  it 
was  kept,  with  most  of  Acadia,  which  was  now  to  be 


26  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

known  as  Nova  Scotia.  In  1745  the  colonies  took  the 
strongest  French  fortress,  Louisburgh,  on  Cape  Breton 
Island,  with  very  little  assistance  from  the  home  Gov 
ernment.  Their  land  expeditions  against  Montreal  and 
Quebec  were  unsuccessful,  the  reason  for  failure  being 
usually  defective  transport. 

28.  In  the  treaties  which  closed  these  wars,  the  inter 
ests  of  the  colonies  met  with  little  consideration.     The 

The  most  notable  instance  of  this  was  the  12th 
"asiento."  article  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  by  which  an 
English  company  was  secured  the  exclusive  right  to  carry 
African  slaves  into  American  ports.  Originally  meant 
to  obtain  the  Spanish  trade  in  negroes,  the  company  had 
influence  enough  to  commit  the  crown  to  a  steady  support 
of  the  African  slave-trade  in  its  own  colonies.  Again 
and  again  the  English  legislatures  in  North  America 
attempted  to  stop  the  slave-trade,  and  were  prevented 
by  the  royal  veto.  This  will  serve  to  explain  a  passage 
in  Jefferson's  first  draft  of  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence,  as  follows  :  —  "  He  [the  king]  has  waged 
cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself.  .  .  .  Determined 
to  keep  open  a  market  where  men  should  be  bought  and 
sold,  he  has  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing 
every  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  to  restrain  this 
execrable  commerce." 

29.  All  parties  seem  to  have  felt  that  the  peace  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  was  but  a  truce  at  the  best ;  and  the  French 
court  seems  to  have  come  at  last  to  some  comprehension 
of  its  extensive  opportunities  and  duties  in  North  Amer 
ica.     With  its  tardy  sympathy,  its  agents  on  the  new 
continent  began  the  erection  of  barriers  against  the  great 
wave   of  English   westward   migration  which  was   just 
appearing  over  the  crest  of  the  Alleghanies.     It  was  too 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION.  27 

late,  however,  for  the  English  colonies  were  really  able 
to  sustain  themselves  against  the  French  colonies  and 
court  together.  Their  surveyors  (1747)  had  crossed  the 
crests  of  the  mountains,  and  had  brought  back  appetiz 
ing  accounts  of  the  quality  of  the  lands  which  lay  beyond. 
The  Ohio  Company  (1749),  formed  partly  of  The  Ohio  com- 
Yirginian  speculators  and  partly  of  English-  Pany- 
men,  had  obtained  a  grant  of  500,000  acres  of  land  in  the 
western  part  of  Pennsylvania  (then  supposed  to  be  a  part 
of  Virginia),  with  a  monopoly  of  the  Indian  trade.  As 
the  grant  was  completely  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Alleghanies,  and  was  the  first  English  intrusion  into  the 
Ohio  valley,  it  behooved  the  French  to  meet  the  step  with 
prompt  action.  Their  agents  traversed  the  Ohio  country, 
making  treaties  with  the  Indians  and  burying  lead  plates 
inscribed  with  the  lilies  of  France  and  a  statement  of  the 
French  claims.  The  erection  of  the  Ohio  Company's  first 
fort  (1752)  brought  on  the  crisis.  The  main  line  of 
French  forts  was  too  far  away  to  be  any  check  upon  it. 
The  French  leaders  therefore  began  to  push  a  branch 
line  eastward  into  the  disputed  territory.  Their  first 
work  (1753)  was  put  up  at  Presque  Isle  (now  Erie), 
about  100  miles  north  of  the  Ohio  Company's  fort.  The 
citadel  of  the  disputed  territory  had  been  begun  on  the 
spot  where  Pittsburgh  now  stands,  where  the  Alleghany 
and  Monongahela  unite  to  form  the  Ohio  river.  Gover 
nor  Dinwiddie,  of  Virginia,  had  obtained  the  right  to 
erect  the  fort  by  treaty  with  the  Indians.  From  Presque 
Isle  the  French  began  running  a  line  of  forts  south, 
through  the  present  "oil  district"  of  Pennsylvania, 
towards  the  headquarters  of  the  English. 

30.    Washington  was  then  a  land-surveyor,  barely  of 
age  ;  but  he  was  the  agent  whom  Dinwiddie  selected  to 


28  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

carry  an  ultimatum  to  the  French  at  Presque  Isle.  After 
a  perilous  winter  passage  through  the  wilderness,  he 
found  that  the  French  had  no  intention  of  evacuating 
their  position,  and  returned.  Virginia  at  once  (January, 
1754)  voted  money  and  men  to  maintain  the  western 
claims  of  the  colonies ;  and  Washington  was  sent  with 
400  provincial  troops  to  secure  the  half-built  fort  at  the 
head  of  the  Ohio.  The  French  were  also  pushing  for  that 
place.  They  won  in  the  race,  drove  away  the  English 
workmen,  and  finished  Fort  Du  Quesne,  named  after  their 
governor.  Washington,  compelled  to  stop  and  fortify  his 
position,  won  the  first  skirmish  of  the  war  with  the 
French  advanced  guard,  but  was  forced  to  surrender  on 
terms  (July  4,  1754).  The  usual  incidents  of  a  general 
Indian  warfare  followed  for  the  rest  of  the  year. 

31.  Both  Governments  began  to  ship  regular  troops  to 
America,  though  there  was  no  formal  declaration  of  war 
The  French  and  until  1756.  The  year  1755  was  marked  by 

Indian  War.  ^he  surprjse  and  defeat  of  Braddock,  a  gal 
lant  and  opinionated  British  officer  who  commanded  an 
expedition  against  Fort  Du  Quesne,  by  the  complete 
conquest  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  by  the  defeat  of  the 
French,  under  their  principal  officer,  Dieskau,  at  Lake 
George,  in  New  York,  by  a  force  of  provincial  troops 
under  Sir  William  Johnson.  In  1756  the  greatest  of 
French  Canadian  governors,  Montcalm,  arrived ;  and  the 
tide  of  war  went  steadily  against  the  English.  The  offi 
cers  sent  out  by  the  home  Government  were  incompetent, 
and  they  generally  declined  to  draw  on  the  colonists  for 
advice.  Montcalm  found  them  an  easy  prey;  and  his 
lines  were  steadily  maintained  at  the  point  where  they 
had  been  when  Washington  surrendered  at  Fort  Neces 
sity.  Pitt's  entrance  to  the  Newcastle  ministry  (June, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION.  29 

1757)  changed  all  this.  For  the  first  time  the  colonies 
found  a  man  who  showed  a  sympathy  with  them  and  a 
willingness  to  use  them.  Their  legislatures  were  sum 
moned  into  counsel  as  to  the  conduct  of  the  war;  and 
their  alacrity  in  response  was  an  augury  of  a  change  in 
its  fortune.  Incompetent  officers  were  weeded  out,  with 
little  regard  to  family  or  court  influence.  The  whole 
force  of  the  colonies  was  gathered  up,  and  in  1758 
was  launched  at  the  French.  All  western  New  York  was 
cleared  of  the  enemy  at  a  blow ;  Fort  Du  Quesne  was 
taken  and  renamed  Fort  Pitt ;  Louisburgh,  which  had 
been  restored  to  France  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  was  again 
taken ;  and  the  only  failure  of  the  year  was  the  dreadful 
butchery  of  the  English  in  assaulting  the  walls  of  Ticon- 
deroga.  Louisburgh  made  an  excellent  point  of  attack 
against  Quebec,  and  Montcalm  was  forced  to  draw  off 
nearly  all  his  troops  elsewhere  for  the  defence  of  his 
principal  post.  The  year  1759  was  therefore  begun  by 
the  capture  of  Ticonderoga  and  almost  all  the  French 
posts  within  the  present  United  States,  and  was  crowned 
by  Wolfe's  capture  of  the  towering  walls  of  Quebec.  In 
1760,  while  George  II.  lay  dying,  the  conquest  of  Canada 
was  completed,  and  the  dream  of  a  great  French  empire 
in  North  America  disappeared  forever. 

32.  The  war  continued  through  the  first  three  years 
of  George  III.,  and  the  colonies  took  part  in  the  capture  of 
Havana  after  Spain  had  entered  the  struggle 

IT  j?     -HI  rr\t  ^     -r*       •        Peace  of  Paris. 

as  an  ally  ot  Jb  ranee.  The  peace  of  Paris, 
which  put  an  end  to  the  war,  restored  Havana  to  Spain, 
in  exchange  for  Florida,  which  now  became  English. 
France  retired  from  North  America,  giving  to  Spain  all 
her  claims  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  that  small  portion 
east  of  the  Mississippi  which  surrounds  New  Orleans, 


30  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

and  to  England  the  remainder  of  the  continent  east  of 
the  Mississippi.  Spain  retained  for  her  territory  the 
name  of  Louisiana,  originally  given  by  the  French.  The 
rest  of  the  continent  was  now  "  the  English  colonies  of 
North  America." 

33.  It  is  evident  now  that  the  French  and  Indian  war 
was  the  prelude  to  the  American  revolution.     It  trained 
the  officers  and  men  for  the  final  struggle.     It  released 
the  colonies  from  the  pressure  of  the  French  in  Canada 
so  suddenly  that  the  consciousness  of  their  own  strength 
came  at  the  same  instant  with  the  removal  of  the  ancient 
barrier  to  it.     It  united  the  colonies  for  the  first  time ; 
few  things  are  more  significant  of  the  development  of 
the  colonies  than  the  outburst  of  plans  for  colonial  union 
between  1748  and  1755,  the  most  promising,  though  it 
finally   failed,   being   that   of   Franklin    (1754)    at   the 
Albany  conference  of   Indian   commissioners   from   the 
various  colonies.     The  practical  union  of  the  colonies, 
however,  was  so  evident  that  it  might  have  been  foreseen 
that  they  would  now  unite  instinctively  against  any  com 
mon  enemy,  even  the  mother  country. 

34.  The  war,  too,  while  it  obtained  its  main  object  in 
the  view  of  the  colonies  —  an  unlimited  western  expan- 

The  conquered  sioii  —  brought  the  seeds  of  enmity  between 
territory,  them  and  the  crown.  The  claims  of  the 
English  on  the  continent,  as  has  been  said,  were  based 
on  the  voyages  of  the  Cabots.  Under  them  the  crown 
had  granted  in  the  charters  of  Massachusetts,  Connec 
ticut,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia 
a  western  extension  at  first  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and 
finally  to  the  Mississippi.  This  was  what  the  colonies 
had  fought  for;  and  yet  at  the  end  of  the  war  (1763) 
a  royal  proclamation  was  issued  forbidding  present  land 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXPANSION.  31 

sales  west  of  the  Alleghanies  and  practically  reserving 
the  conquered  territory  as  a  crown  domain.  In  this,  if 
in  nothing  else,  lay  the  seeds  of  the  coming  revolution, 
as  it  afterwards  almost  disrupted  the  rising  Union.  The 
war  had  welded  the  thirteen  colonies  into  one  people, 
though  they  hardly  dreamed  of  it  yet ;  they  had  an 
underlying  consciousness  that  this  western  territory  be 
longed  to  the  new  people,  not  to  the  crown  or  to  the  sep 
arate  colonies  which  had  charter  claims  to  it ;  and  they 
would  have  resisted  the  claims  of  the  crown  as  promptly 
as  they  afterwards  resisted  the  claims  of  the  individual 
colonies. 

35.  Finally,  the  war  broke  the  feeling  of  dependence 
on  the  mother  country.  Poorly  armed,  equipped,  and  dis 
ciplined,  the  colonial  or  "  provincial  "  troops  Effects  of  the 
had  certainly  shown  fighting  qualities  of  no  war> 
mean  order.  Colonists  would  not  have  been  disposed, 
under  any  circumstances,  to  underrate  the  military  qual 
ities  of  their  own  men,  but  their  self-glorification  found 
a  larger  material  because  of  the  frequently  poor  quality 
of  the  officers  who  were  sent  through  family  and  court 
influence  to  represent  Great  Britain  in  the  colonies. 
The  bitter  words  in  which  Junius  refers  to  British  mili 
tary  organization  in  after  years  were  certainly  even  more 
applicable  in  1750 ;  and  the  incompetency  of  many  of 
the  British  officers  is  almost  incomprehensible.  Its 
effects  were  increased  by  an  utter  indifference  to  the 
advice  of  colonial  leaders  which,  in  a  new  and  unknown 
country,  was  certain  to  place  British  soldiers  again  and 
again  in  positions  where  they  appeared  to  great  disad 
vantage  alongside  of  their  colonial  allies  or  rivals.  The 
provincial  who  had  stood  his  ground,  firing  from  behind 
trees  and  stumps,  while  the  regulars  ran  past  him  in 


32  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

headlong  retreat,  came  home  with  a  sense  of  his  own 
innate  superiority  which  was  sure  to  bring  its  results. 
Braddock's  defeat  was  the  prologue  to  Bunker  Hill.  The 
results  were  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
war  was  fought  either  in  New  England,  the  most  demo 
cratic  of  the  colonies,  or  by  New  England  men.  Their 
leaders  had  always  been  sought  for  by  annual  popu 
lar  elections  and  re-elections,  the  promotion  of  approved 
men,  and  the  retention  of  men  of  poorer  quality  in  lower 
grades  of  office.  To  them  the  aristocratic  influences 
which  gave  place  and  power  to  such  men  as  Loudoun 
and  "  Mrs.  Nabbycrombie  "  were  simply  ridiculous,  and 
marked  only  an  essential  difference  between  themselves 
and  their  English  brethren  which  was  to  the  disadvan 
tage  of  the  latter,  even  though  it  occasionally  evolved  a 
man  like  Howe  or  Pitt.  Taking  all  the  influences  to 
gether,  it  is  plain  that  the  French  and  Indian  war  not 
only  brought  into  being  a  tangible  union  of  the  colonies, 
but  broke  many  of  the  cords  which  had  held  the  colonies 
to  the  mother  country. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  33 


III. 

THE   STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION. 

1763-75. 

36.  IT  is  generally  believed  that  the  abandonment  of 
North  America  by  France  was  the  result  of  profound 
policy,  —  that  she  foresaw  that  her  retirement  would  be 
followed  by  the  independence  of  the  English  colonies, 
and   that    Great    Britain's    temporary    aggrandizement 
would  result  in  a  more  profound  abasement.     Vergennes 
and  Choiseul  both  stated  the  case  in  just  this  way  in 
1763 ;  and  yet  it  may  be  doubted  whether  this  was  not 
rather  an  excuse  for  yielding  to  necessity  than  a  politi 
cal  motive.     At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  peace, 
even  with  its  release  of  the  colonies  from  French  pres 
sure,  was  not  enough  to  secure  colonial  union.     For  this 
it  was  necessary  that  the  home  Government  should  go 
on  and  release  the  colonists  from  their  controlling  feeling 
that  they  were  rather  Englishmen  than  Americans. 

37.  This  feeling  was  not  an  easy  one  to  eradicate,  for 
it  was  based  in  blood,  training,  and  sympathies  of  every 
nature.     It  would  not  have  been  easy  to  dis-   r 

*  English  sym- 

tinguish  the  American  from  the  Englishman ;   pathies  of  the 
it  would,  indeed,  have  been  less  easy   than 
now,  when  the  full  effects  of  a  great  stream  of  immigra 
tion  have  begun  to  appear.     American  portraits  of  the 
time  show  typical  English  faces.     Wherever  life   was 


34  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

relieved  of  the  privations  involved  in  colonial  struggle, 
the  person  at  once  reverted  to  the  type  which  was  then 
the  result  of  corresponding  conditions  in  England.  The 
traditions  of  American  officers  were  English ;  their  meth 
ods  were  English;  even  the  attitude  which  they  took 
towards  the  private  soldiers  of  their  armies  was  that 
which  was  characteristic  of  the  English  officer  of  the 
time.  In  the  South  the  men  who  led  and  formed  public 
opinion  had  almost  all  been  trained  in  England  and  were 
ingrained  with  English  sympathies  and  even  prejudices. 
In  the  North  the  acute  general  intellect  had  long  ago 
settled  upon  the  "  common  rights  of  Englishmen  "  as  the 
bulwark  behind  which  they  could  best  resist  any  attempt 
on  their  liberties.  The  pride  of  the  colonists  in  their 
position  as  Englishmen  found  a  medium  of  expression 
in  enthusiasm  for  "  the  young  king " ;  and  it  would  be 
hard  to  imagine  a  more  loyal  appendage  of  the  crown 
than  its  English  colonies  in  North  America  in  1760. 

38.  Unfortunately,  the  peace  of  Paris  did  not  result 
merely  in  freeing  the  colonies  from  dependence  on  the 
change  of  Eng-  mother  country ;  it  had  the  more  important 

iish  policy,  effect  of  freeing  the  mother  country  from 
fear  of  France,  and  of  thus  encouraging  it  to  open  a 
controversy  with  the  colonies  which  had  not  been  ven 
tured  on  before.  Quebec  had  hardly  fallen  and  given 
the  home  Government  promise  of  success  when  the  work 
was  begun  (1761).  The  Board  of  Trade  began  to  revive 
those  regulations  of  colonial  trade  which  had  been  prac 
tically  obsolete  in  New  England ;  and  its  customs  officers 
applied  to  the  Massachusetts  courts  for  "  writs  of  assist 
ance  "  to  enable  them  to  enforce  the  regulations.  Instant 
resistance  was  offered  to  the  attempt  to  burden  the 
colonies  with  these  writs,  which  governed  all  men,  were 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  35 

returnable  nowhere,  gave  the  officers  absolute  power,  and 
opened  every  man's  house  and  property  to  their  entrance. 
The  argument  of  the  crown  advocates  based  the  power 
of  issuing  such  writs  on  parliament's  extension  of  the 
English  revenue  system  to  the  colonies,  backed  by  a 
statute  of  Charles  II.  permitting  writs  of  assistance ;  to 
refuse  to  grant  the  writs  was  therefore  to  impeach  the 
power  of  parliament  to  legislate  for  the  colonies.  The 
counter-argument  of  James  Otis  was  the  key-note  of  the 
revolution.  It  declared  in  terms  that  no  Act  of  parlia 
ment  could  establish  such  a  writ,  that  it  would  be  a 
nullity  even  if  it  were  expressed  in  the  very  terms  which 
the  customs  officers  claimed,  and  that  "  an  Act  of  parlia 
ment  against  the  constitution  was  void." 

39.  Perhaps  Otis  meant  by  "  the  constitution  "  merely 
the  fundamental  relations  between  the  mother  country 
and  the  colonies,  for  this  claim  was  the  first  . 

The  English 

step  on  the  way  to  the  final  irreconcilable  theory  of  colonial 
difference  as  to  these  relations.  The  English 
theory  of  the  connection  had  been  completely  put  into 
shape  by  1760,  with  very  little  objection  from  the  colon 
ists,  whose  attention  had  not  yet  been  strongly  drawn  to 
the  subject.  It  held  that  even  the  two  charter  colonies, 
and  a  fortiori  still  more  such  a  royal  province  as  New 
York,  were  merely  corporations,  erected  by  the  king,  but 
subject  to  all  the  English  laws  relating  to  such  corpora 
tions.  The  king  was  their  visitor,  to  inquire  into  and 
correct  their  misbehaviors ;  his  courts,  on  quo  warranto, 
could  dissolve  them ;  and  parliament  had  the  same  om 
nipotent  power  over  them  which  it  had  over  any  other 
civil  corporation,  —  to  check,  amend,  punish,  or  dissolve 
them.  These  propositions  must  have  seemed  unquestion 
able  to  the  English  legal  mind  in  1763.  Their  weak 


36  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

point,  the  assumption  that  parliament  had  power  to  con 
trol  a  corporation  extra  quatuor  maria,  had  been  covered 
by  a  new  development  of  the  English  theory  during  the 
century.  Parliament,  originally  a  merely  English  body, 
had  grown  in  its  powers  and  claims  until  now  the  common 
use  of  the  phrase  "  imperial  parliament "  connoted  claims 
to  which  the  "  four  seas  "  were  no  longer  a  limitation,  in 
law  or  fact.  Parliament  was  to  give  the  law  to  the  whole 
empire.  Hitherto  this  had  been  developed  as  a  purely 
legal  theory ;  it  was  now  first  attempted  to  be  put  into 
practice  when  the  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Acts 
was  begun  in  1761.  The  first  objections  offered  by  the 
colonists  were  easily  shown  to  be  illogical  and  incon 
sistent  with  this  legal  theory  of  the  relations  between 
the  home  country  and  the  colonies,  but  this  only  drove 
the  colonists  higher,  step  by  step,  in  their  objections,  — 
from  objections  to  taxation  by  parliament  into  objections 
to  legislation  by  parliament,  —  until  they  had  developed, 
about  1775,  a  theory  of  their  own,  logical  enough  in  itself, 
but  so  inconsistent  with  the  English  theory  that  war  was 
the  consequence  of  their  collision. 

40.  Passing  over  the  intermediate  steps,  the  form 
which  the  colonial  theory  finally  took  amounted  to  this. 
The  colonists'  The  introduction  of  the  idea  of  an  "  imperial 
theory.  parliament"  was  itself  a  revolution,  which 
could  not  bind  the  colonists,  or  change  the  conditions 
under  which  they  had  settled  the  new  country.  Their 
relations,  originally  and  properly,  had  been  with  the 
crown  alone,  and  they  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  parlia 
ment.  The  crown  had  seen  fit  to  constitute  new  domin 
ions  for  itself  beyond  the  seas,  with  forms  of  government 
which  were  irrepealable  compacts  between  it  and  the  peo 
ple  whom  it  had  thus  induced  to  settle  the  new  territory, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  37 

and  not  mere  civil  corporations.  It  would  follow,  then, 
that  the  king  was  no  longer  king  merely  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland ;  he  had  at  least  thirteen  kingdoms  beyond 
seas,  and  a  parliament  in  each  of  them.  For  the  British 
parliament  to  interfere  with  the  special  concerns  of 
Massachusetts  was  as  flagrant  a  wrong  as  it  would  have 
been  for  the  parliament  of  Massachusetts  to  interfere 
with  the  affairs  of  Great  Britain ;  and  Massachusetts 
had  a  right  to  expect  her  king  to  protect  her  from  such 
a  wrong.  The  subject  of  Massachusetts  knew  the  king 
only  as  king  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  parliament  of 
Great  Britain  not  at  all.  It  needed  many  years  of  suc 
cessful  but  suicidal  logic  on  the  part  of  their  opponents 
to  force  the  Americans  to  this  point ;  they  even  continued 
to  petition  parliament  until  1774;  but  after  that  time 
they  were  no  further  inconsistent,  and  held  that  the  king 
was  the  only  bond  of  union  between  the  parts  of  the 
empire.  When  he  wanted  money  from  his  American 
dominions,  he  was  to  get  it,  as  he  had  always  got  it,  by 
applying  to  the  assembly  of  the  colony,  through  the 
governor,  for  a  grant.  In  the  new  seats  of  the  race,  as 
in  the  old,  an  Englishman  was  to  be  taxed  only  by  his 
own  representatives.  In  other  words,  each  of  the  English 
colonies  claimed,  in  its  own  field  and  for  its  own  citizens, 
the  exact  principles  of  "  English  liberty  "  which  had  been 
established  in  England  as  the  relations  of  the  English 
subject  to  the  crown.  Each  colony  was  to  be  governed 
by  its  own  laws,  just  as  in  Jersey  and  Guernsey,  in 
Scotland  before  the  Union,  or  in  Hanover  in  1763,  with 
appeal  to  the  king  in  council,  not  to  English  courts  or  to 
the  House  of  Lords.  For  the  British  parliament,  or  still 
more  the  British  citizen,  to  talk  of  aour  sovereignty" 
over  the  colonies  was  a  derogation  from  the  king's  sov- 


38  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ereignty,  the  only  sovereignty  which  the  colonies  knew. 
"I  am  quite  sick  of  'our  sovereignty/"  wrote  Franklin 
in  1769.  The  case  of  the  colonies  was  evidently  that  of 
Ireland  also  j  and  Franklin  notes  the  fact  that  several 
members  of  colonial  assemblies  had  been  admitted  to  the 
privileges  of  the  Irish  parliament,  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  members  of  "  American  parliaments."  To  this 
statement  of  their  case  the  Americans  adhered  with  pro 
gressive  closeness  from  1763  until  the  end.  In  their  final 
Declaration  of  Independence  it  will  be  found  that  it  is  a 
declaration  of  their  independence  of  the  king  only  ;  they 
do  not  then  admit  that  the  British  parliament  had  ever 
had  any  authority  over  them ;  and  that  body  is  only 
mentioned  in  one  place,  in  [one  of  the  counts  of  the 
indictment  of  the  king,  for  having  given  his  assent  to 
certain  "  acts  of  pretended  legislation,'7  passed  by  "  a 
jurisdiction  foreign  to  our  constitutions  and  unacknowl 
edged  by  our  laws,"  that  is  to  say,  by  the  British  parlia 
ment. 

41.  Two  irreconcilable  theories  were  thus  presented. 
Between  them  were  two  courses,  either  of  which  the 
Possible  com-  colonies  were  willing  to  accept.  Under  their 
promises,  theory  there  was  no  "  imperial  parliament." 
They  were  willing  to  have  one  constituted,  even  if  it 
were  only  a  development  of  the  British  parliament 
through  admission  of  colonial  representatives ;  but  the 
time  for  this  passed  before  the  parties  could  debate  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  colonies  were  willing  to  abandon 
to  the  wealthier  British  parliament,  which  sustained  so 
much  larger  a  proportion  of  the  cost  of  the  standing 
army  and  navy,  the  privilege  of  regulating  external  trade 
for  the  general  good.  So  late  as  1774  the  Continental 
Congress,  while  maintaining  the  sole  right  of  the  colonial 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOK  UNION.          39 

assemblies  to  levy  internal  taxation  and  make  local  la\vs, 
declared  their  willingness  to  yield  to  the  British  parlia 
ment  the  power  to  make  such  regulations  of  external 
trade  as  were  bona  fide  meant  to  benefit  trade,  and  not 
to  raise  a  revenue  from  Americans  without  their  own 
consent.  This  solution  could  have  been  only  temporary 
at  best,  and  war  cut  off  any  discussion  of  it. 

42.  The  work  of  quiet  revolution  was  begun  in  March, 
1763,  in  the  closing  hours  of  the  Bute  ministry,  Charles 
Townshend  being  first  lord  of  trade  and  administrator  of 
the  colonies.     It  was  decided  to  make  a  point  of  having 
all  the  American  judges  and  other  officials  hold  office  dur-  \ 
ing  the  king's  pleasure,  and  to  make  their  salaries  inde 
pendent  of  the  colonial  assemblies.     The  army  estimates 
were  increased  by  an  American  standing  force  of  twenty 
regiments,  to  be  paid  for  by  Great  Britain  for  the  first 
year,  and  thereafter  out  of  a  revenue  to  be  raised  in 
America  by  Act  of  parliament.      Bute's  purposes  were 
political, — the  diminution  of  democracy  in  America.    The 
Wilkes  uproar  drove  him  out  of  power  before  he  could 
develop  his  plans ;  but  his  successor,  Grenville,  followed 
them  out  for  financial  reasons,  and  in  February,  1765,  the 
Stamp  Act  "  was  passed  through  both  Houses 

.,,     ,  ...          .,  .,       ,  .,,  ,,  The  Stamp  Act. 

with  less  opposition  than  a  turnpike  bill." 

43.  For  the  past  two  years  the  colonists  had  had  other 
things  to  think  of.    Under  Grenville  the  Acts  in  restraint 
of  colonial  trade  (§§  20,  21),  which  had  been  The  Navigation 
allowed  to  become  practically  obsolete,  were        Laws> 
put  into  force  with  unsparing   rigor.     The  numbers  of 
the  customs  officers  were   increased;  their  duties  were 
more  plainly  declared  j  naval  officers  were  encouraged  to 
take  the  oaths  of  customs  officers  and  share  in  the  plun 
der  of  the  commerce  which  had  grown  up  between  Amer- 


40  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ica  and  the  West  Indian  Islands  and  other  parts  of  the 
world.  Search  was  constant;  confiscation  usually  fol 
lowed  search;  and  appeal  was  even  more  costly  than 
confiscation.  In  the  confusion  arising  from  the  efforts 
of  American  commerce  to  escape  its  new  enemies,  it  was 
not  wonderful  that  other  questions  were  allowed  to  go 
by  default.  But  the  mutterings  of  resistance  were  heard. 
The  Massachusetts  assembly  protested  against  any 

*  schemes  to  create  a  standing  army  in  America,  to  make 
officers  independent  of  the  assemblies,  or  to  raise  a  reve 
nue  without  consent  of  the  assemblies,  and  appointed  a 

I  committee  to  secure  the  united  action  of  all  the  colonies. 
This  was  the  first  movement  in  the  struggle  for  union. 
Its  importance  was  hidden  from  the  ministry  by  the  offi 
cial  class  in  the  colonies,  whose  members — the  governors, 
judges,  and  other  crown  officials  —  continued  to  urge  a 
persistence  in  the  new  policy,  and  to  represent  the 
Adamses,  Otis,  and  the  other  colonial  leaders  as  animated 
by  a  perverse  desire  to  destroy  the  unity  of  the  empire. 

44.  The  revenue  to  be  raised  by  the  Stamp  Act  was  to 
come  from  the  sale  of  stamps  and  stamped  paper  for 
marriage  licenses,  commercial  transactions,  suits  at  law, 
transfers  of  real  estate,  inheritances,  publications,  and 
some  minor  sources  of  revenue.  With  it  was  another 
startling  provision,  —  a  command  to  the  colonial  assem 
blies  to  furnish  the  royal  troops  in  America  with  fuel,  can 
dles,  vinegar,  bedding,  cooking  utensils,  and  potables,  and 
permission  to  billet  the  troops  in  inns,  alehouses,  barns, 
and  vacant  houses.  The  colonies  were  thus  to  be  taxed 
without  their  consent ;  the  revenue  derived  therefrom  was 
to  be  devoted  to  the  support  of  a  standing  army;  and 
that  army  was  in  turn  to  be  used  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  scheme  of  taxation.  Yet  no  one  in  England  seems  to 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  41 

have  dreamed  of  American  resistance  to  it ;  and  Gren- 
ville  was  able  to  say  in  1770  that  he  "did  not  foresee  the 
opposition  to  the  measure,  and  would  have  staked  his  life 
for  obedience." 

45.  The  news  of  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  caused 
all  America  to  hum  with  the  signs  of  resistance,  but 
forcible   resistance   was    at   first   repudiated  Resistance  to 
everywhere.     It  took  the  shape,  really  more  the  stamP Act- 
significant,  of  declarations   by  the  colonial  assemblies,* 
the  lower  or  popular  houses  of  the  legislatures.     The 
Virginia  assembly,  under  the  lead  of  Patrick  Henry  and 
the  younger  members,  took  the  first  step  (May,  1765), 
by  a  declaration  of  colonial  rights  covering  the  right  of 
each  colony  to  make  its  own  laws  and  impose  and  expend 
its  own  taxation.     The  Massachusetts  assembly  followed 
with  the  formal  proposal  of  an  American  Congress,  to  be 
composed  of  representatives  of  all  the  colonies.     South 
Carolina  seconded  the  call ;  and  the  first  step  on  the  road 
to  union  was  taken. 

46.  Outside  of  these  formal  steps  there  were  signs  of 
a  less  formal  popular  resistance.     Even  peaceable  resis 
tance  was  pro  tanto  a  suspension  of  royal  and  parliamen 
tary  authority  in  the  colonies ;  and  it  was  probably  in 
evitable  that  the  colonial  assemblies  should  succeed  to 
the  power  during  the  interregnum  before  the  organization 
of  a  real  national  power.     But  a  temporary  chaos  was  as 
inevitable  ;  and  the  form  it  took  was  the  formation,  par 
ticularly  in  the  North,  of  popular  organizations  known 
as  "Sons  of  Liberty,"  the  name  being  taken  ..Sonsof  Lib. 
from   a   chance   allusion   in   one   of    Barrels        erty-" 
speeches  in  the  House  of  Commons.     These,  backed  fre 
quently  by  the  town  organizations,  forced  the  stamp-offi 
cers  to  resign,  and  destroyed  the  stamps  wherever  they 


42  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

could  be  found.  The  Connecticut  stamp-officer,  as  he 
rode  into  Hartford  on  his  white  horse  to  deposit  his  resig 
nation,  with  a  thousand  armed  farmers  riding  after  him, 
said  that  he  felt  "  like  death  on  the  pale  horse,  with  all 
hell  following  him."  Newspapers  and  pamphlets  rang 
every  possible  change  on  Coke's  dictum  that  "  an  Act  of 
parliament  contrary  to  Magna  Charta  was  void,"  and  with 
warnings  to  stamp-officers  that  they  would  be  considered 
enemies  to  the  liberties  of  America  if  they  attempted  to 
carry  out  their  duties.  When  the  day  broke  on  which  the 
Act  was  to  go  into  operation  (November  1, 1765)  America 
had  neither  stamps  nor  stamp-officers  with  which  to  fulfil 
its  provisions. 

47.  The  proposed  Congress,  commonly  called  the 
"  Stamp- Act  Congress,"  met  at  New  York  (October  7, 
stamp- Act  Con-  JJ&&  —  New  Hampshire,  Virginia,  North  Car- 
gress.  olina,  and  Georgia  being  acquiescent  but  not 
represented.  It  petitioned  the  king,  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  and  the  House  of  Lords  to  recognize  fully  "the 
several  governments  formed  in  the  said  colonies,  with 
full  powers  of  legislation,  agreeably  to  the  principles  of 
the  English  constitution."  It  also  put  forth  a  declara 
tion  of  colonial  rights,  acknowledging  allegiance  to  the 
crown,  and  claiming  "  all  the  inherent  rights  and  privi 
leges  of  natural-born  subjects  within  the  kingdom  of 
Great  Britain,"  including  the  right  of  petition,  of  trial  by 
jury,  of  taxation  by  representatives,  and  of  granting  sup 
plies  to  the  crown,  and  protesting  against  the  Stamp  Act 
and  the  various  Acts  in  restraint  of  trade.  The  action 
of  this  congress  was  thus  purely  declaratory ;  there  was 
no  attempt  to  legislate ;  and  the  importance  of  the  meet 
ing  was  in  its  demonstration  of  the  possibility  of  union 
and  of  one  road  to  it. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  UNION.          43 

48.  In  the  meantime  the  Grenville  ministry  had  fallen 
(July,  1765),  and  the  Rockingham  ministry  (March,  1766) 
repealed  the   Stamp  Act.      The  repeal  was   Repeaiofthe 
supported  by  Pitt,  and   Whigs   who   agreed    stamp  Act. 
with  him,  on  the  distinction  that   taxation  by  parlia 
ment  without  colonial  representation  was   in  violation 
of  the  essential  principles  of  the  British  constitution,  but 
that  the  power  of  parliament  to  legislate  in  every  other 
point  for  all  parts  of  the  empire  must  be  maintained 
(§  21).     Nevertheless,  the  repeal  was  preceded  by  a  dec 
laration  of  the  power  "  of  the  king  in  parliament  to  bind 
the  colonies  and  people  of  America  in  all  cases  what 
soever." 

49.  The  colonists  received  the  repeal  with  an  outburst 
of  rejoicing  loyalty.     They  cared  little  for  Pitt's  distinc 
tion  of  powers,  or  even  for  the  declaratory  Act :  it  seemed 
to  them  merely  the  honors  of  war  with  which  the  min 
istry  was  to  be  allowed  to  retire.     It  really  meant  much 
more.     The  ruling  interest  in  the  home  Government,  dis 
ordered  for  the  moment  by  its  sudden  discovery  of  the 
strength  and  union  of  the  colonies,  had  drawn  back,  but 
not  forever.     All  through  the  year  an  undercurrent  of 
irritation  against   the   colonies   is  evident ;   and,  when 
(June,  1767)   Townshend,   the  chancellor  of  townshend's 
the  exchequer,  had  wrested  the  lead  from  the        Acts- 
other    members    of    the    Grafton   ministry,   he    passed 
through  both  Houses  the  bill  for  taxing  imports  into  the 
colonies,  to  go  into  effect  on  20th  November  following. 
It  laid  duties  on  glass,  paper,  painters'  colors,  lead  and 
tea.     As  the  proceeds  were  for  the  exchequer,  they  were 
to  be  distributed  by  the  crown ;  and  there  was  no  secret 
that  the  design  was  to  provide  salaries  for  the  crown 
servants  in  North  America.     About  the  same  time  other 


44  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Acts  established  a  board  of  customs  at  Boston,  legalized 
the  "writs  of  assistance,"  and  suspended  the  New  York 
assembly  until  it  should  obey  the  Billeting  Act.  Town- 
shend  died  soon  after,  leaving  his  system  as  a  legacy  to 
his  successor,  Lord  North. 

50.  The  New  York  assembly  granted  the  necessary 
money,  said  nothing  as  to  its  use,  and  escaped  further 
molestation.  Beyond  this  the  Acts  accomplished  noth 
ing.  Their  advocates  had  urged  that  the  colonies  ad 
mitted  the  power  of  parliament  to  control  external 
commerce,  and  that  the  new  taxes  were  an  exercise  of 
such  control.  If  they  desired  a  purely  technical  triumph 
they  had  it,  for  their  logic  was  sound,  and  the  taxes 
remained  on  the  statute-book.  But,  as  the  colonies 
Non-importation  ceased  to  import  the  taxed  articles,  by  popu- 

agreement.  \^  agreement  and  enforcement,  the  taxes 
amounted  to  little.  The  irritations  caused  by  the  en 
forcement  of  the  Navigation  Act,  only  increased  in  bit 
terness  ;  and  the  official  class  in  the  colonies,  on  whom 
must  forever  rest  the  responsibility  for  nine-tenths  of 
the  difficulties  which  followed,  lost  no  chance  of  rep 
resenting  every  pamphlet,  newspaper  letter,  or  public 
meeting  as  incipient  rebellion.  A  popular  outburst  in 
Boston  (June,  1768)  following  the  seizure  of  John  Han 
cock's  sloop  "  Liberty,"  was  thus  used  to  give  that  town 
an  unenviable  reputation  for  disorder  and  violence. 
Colonial  officials  everywhere  openly  or  secretly  urged 
the  strongest  measures  ;  and  all  the  while  the  colonists, 
with  the  cautious  tenacity  of  their  race,  were  acting  so 
guardedly  that  the  British  attorney-general  was  com 
pelled  to  say,  "  Look  into  the  papers  and  see  how  well 
these  Americans  are  versed  in  the  crown  law;  I  doubt 
whether  they  have  been  guilty  of  an  overt  act  of  treason, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  45 

but  I  am  sure  they  have  come  within  a  hair's-breadth 
of  it." 

51.  The   colonial   officials,  hoping   for   salaries   inde 
pendent  of  the  assemblies,  began  to  show  a  disposition 
to  govern  without  those  bodies.     When  the  Massachu 
setts  assembly  refused  by  a  large  vote  to  withdraw  its 
circular  letter  to  the  other  assemblies  urging  united  peti 
tion  to  the  king  alone,  as  an  umpire  between  themselves 
and  the  British  parliament,  for  redress  of  grievances,  the 
assembly  was  prorogued,  and  did  not  reassemble  for  a 
year.     As  a  gentle  hint  of  a  possible  mode  of  re-estab 
lishing  popular  government,  delegates  from  the  towns 
met  in  convention  at  Boston  (September,  1768),  renewed 
the  protests  against  the  Acts  of  the  ministry,  and  pro 
vided  for  the  maintenance  of  public  order.     In  the  fol 
lowing  December  and  January  parliament  passed  a  vote 
of  censure  on  this  proceeding,  and  advised  that  those 
who  had  taken  part  in  it  should  be  sent  to  England  for 
trial  on  the  charge  of  treason.     This  was  a  new  grievance 
for  the  assemblies.     They  passed  remonstrances  against 
any  attempt  to  send  Americans  beyond  seas  for  trial,  as 
a  violation  of  the  citizen's  right  to  trial  by  a  jury  from 
the  vicinage;    and  their  governors   at   once   prorogued 
them.     Civil  government  in  the  colonies,  under  its  origi 
nal  constitution,  was  evidently  in  sore  straits. 

52.  In  September,  1768,  two  British  regiments  which 
the  colonial  officials  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  arrived 
at  Boston.     Instead  of  a  rebellious  population   Difficulties  at 
they  found  their  most  formidable  opponents       Boston. 

in  minute  law  points  which  were  made  to  beset  them  at 
every  turn.  The  Billeting  Act  required  the  ordinary 
barracks  to  be  filled  first :  the  council  would  assign  no 
quarters  in  town  until  the  barracks  outside  were  filled. 


40  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  assembly  was  not  in  session  to  authorize  anything 
further,  and  the  governor  did  not  dare  to  summon  it. 
The  troops,  who  had  marched  into  the  town  as  into  a 
captured  place,  with  sixteen  rounds  of  ammunition  per 
man,  were  presently  without  a  place  in  which  to  cook 
their  dinners,  until  their  commander  hired  houses  out  of 
the  army  chest.  It  was  natural  that  he  should  denounce 
"  this  country  where  every  man  studies  law."  Exasper 
ating  and  exasperated,  the  troops  lived  on  in  Boston  until 
(March,  1770)  a  street  brawl  between  soldiers  and  citizens 
resulted  in  the  death  of  five  of  the  latter  and  the  injury 
of  six  more.  Still  the  town  kept  its  temper.  The  cap 
tain  who  had  given  the  order  to  fire  was  seized  by  the 
civil  authorities,  subjected  to  the  ordinary  trial  for  mur 
der,  defended  by  John  Adams  and  Quincy,  two  Massa 
chusetts  leaders,  at  the  hazard  of  their  own  popularity, 
and  acquitted  for  lack  of  evidence.  But  while  according 
a  fair  trial  to  the  soldiers,  the  colonial  leaders  at  last 
represented  so  plainly  to  the  crown  officials  the  immi 
nence  of  an  outbreak  that  the  troops  were  removed  from 
the  town  to  a  fort  in  the  harbor. 

53.  The  most  significant  point  in  the  history  of  the 
four  years  1770-73  is  the  manner  in  which  the  ordi- 
The  colonial  ™*J  colonial  governments  continued  to  go  to 
governments.  pieces<  When  the  assemblies  met  they  would 
do  nothing  but  denounce  the  Acts  of  the  ministry ;  when 
they  were  prorogued  the  colony  was  left  without  any 
government  for  which  there  was  popular  respect.  This 
was  about  the  state  of  affairs  which  the  crown  officials 
had  desired ;  but  now  that  it  had  come,  they  were  not  at 
all  prompt  in  their  use  of  it.  Divorced  from  regular 
government  the  people  put  out  still  stronger  efforts  to 
enforce  the  non-importation  agreements  which  had  kept 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  47 

down  the  revenues  from  the  tax-laws  of  1767.  About 
1773  a  further  development  appeared.  As  soon  as  the 
assemblies  met  for  their  annual  sessions,  and  before 
the  governors  conld  find  excuse  for  proroguing  them, 
they  appointed  "committees  of  correspondence,"  to  main 
tain  unity  of  action  with  the  other  colonies.  Thus,  even 
after  prorogation,  there  was  still  in  existence  for  the 
rest  of  the  year  a  semi-official  representation  of  the 
colony.  This  was  nearly  the  last  step  on  the  way  to 
colonial  union. 

54.  The  whites  had  already  crossed  the  Alleghanies. 
In  1768  parties  from  North  Carolina  entered  Tennessee ; 
and  in  1769  Boone  and  a  party  of  Virgin-   western  settie- 
ians  entered  Kentucky.     The  settlement  of        ment- 
Tennessee  was  hastened  by  difficulties  with  Tryon,  the 
governor   of   North   Carolina.      Tryon  was   one  of  the 
worst  of  the  crown  officials ;   and  his  government  had 
been  a  scandal,  even  for  those  times.    The  people,  denied 
justice  and  defrauded  of  legislative  power,  rose  in  hasty 
insurrection  and  were  defeated.     Tryon  used  his  victory 
so  savagely  as  to  drive  an  increasing  stream  of  settlers 
over  the   mountains   into   Tennessee.     The   centres   of 
western  settlement,  however,  were  but  few.     There  was 
one  at  Pittsburgh,  another  at  Detroit,  another  near  the 
Illinois-Indiana  boundary,  another  in  Kentucky,  another 
near  the  present  city  of  Nashville,  Tennessee ;  but  none 
of  these,  except,  perhaps,  Detroit,  was  more  than  a  hunt 
ing  or  trading  camp.     Some  efforts  had  been  made  to 
erect  crown  colonies,  or  to  settle  grants  to  companies,  in 
the  western  territory,  but  they  came  to  nothing.     The 
settlements  still  clung  to  the  coast. 

55.  In  April,  1770,  encouraged  by  some  symptoms  of 
a  failure  of  the  non-importation  agreements,  the  ministry 


48  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

had  taken  off  all  the  taxes  of  1767,  retaining  only  that 

upon  tea,  —  threepence  per  pound.     The  general  popular 

agreement  was  still  strong  enough  to  prevent 

The  tea  tax.      ,,.  ..  ^    ,  i  •        •       -i      i  -,. 

the  importation  01  this  single  luxury ;  and  it 
was  found  in  1772  that  the  tax  produced  but  about  £80 
a  year,  at  an  expense  of  two  or  three  hundred  thousand 
for  collection.  Besides,  the  East  India  Company  had 
been  accumulating  a  stock  of  teas,  in  anticipation  of  an 
American  market,  of  which  the  tea  tax  had  deprived  it. 
In  May,  1773,  the  ministry  took  a  fresh  step  :  the  tax 
was  to  be  retained,  but  the  Company  was  to  be  allowed 
a  drawback  of  the  entire  duty,  —  so  that  the  colonists, 
while  really  paying  the  tax  and  yielding  the  underlying 
principle,  would  get  their  tea  cheaper  than  any  other 
people.  The  first  cargoes  of  tea  under  the  new  regula 
tions  were  ordered  home  again  by  popular  meetings  in 
the  American  ports,  and  their  captains  generally  obeyed. 
At  Boston  the  governor  refused  to  clear  the  vessels  for 
Europe;  and,  after  prolonged  discussion,  some  fifty  per 
sons,  disguised  as  Indians,  went  on  board  the  vessels  and 
threw  the  tea  into  the  harbor  in  the  presence  of  a  great 
crowd  of  lookers-on  (December  16,  1773). 

56.  It  was  not  possible  that  the  term  American  should 
suddenly  supplant  that  of  Englishman ;  but  the  succes- 
The  new  siye  steps  by  which  the  change  was  aceom- 
nationai  feeling,  pushed  are  easily  perceptible.  Using  one  of 
the  old  English  political  phrases  the  supporters  of  colo 
nial  privileges  had  begun  about  JLJ68  to  adopt  the  name 
of  "American  Whigs."  Its  increasing  substitution  for 
that  of  Englishmen  was  significant.  Within  a  few  years 
the  terms  "continental,"  or  "the  continent,"  began  to 
take  on  a  new  meaning,  referring  to  a  union  of  the  colo 
nies  at  which  men  hardly  ventured  to  hint  clearly.  It 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  49 

meant  a  good  deal,  then,  when  men  said  very  truly  that 
"the  whole  continent"  applauded  the  "Boston  tea-party." 
It  was  the  first  spoken  word  of  the  new  national  spirit. 
Nothing  was  less  understood  in  England ;  the  outbreak 
left  America  in  general,  and  Boston  in  particular,  hardly 
a  friend  there.  The  burning  of  the  revenue  schooner 
"Gasj)ee_"  in  Narragansett  Bay  (June,  1772)  had  seemed 
to  the  ministry  almost  an  act  of  overt  rebellion ;  this  was 
rebellion  itself. 

57.  In  March  and  April,  JIZZ4  on  receipt  of  full  intelli 
gence  of  the  proceedings  at  Boston,  the  ministry  passed  a 
series  of  Acts  which  made  open  struggle  only  The ..  |nt0|eri. 
a  question  of  time.     The  Boston  Port   Act     ble  Acts-" 
shut  up  the  town  of  Boston  against  all  commerce  until 
the  destroyed  tea  was  paid  for  and  the  town  returned  to 
loyalty.     The  Massachusetts  Act  changed  the  charter  of 
that  colony:  the  crown  was  now  to  appoint  governor, 
council,  and  sheriffs ;  the  sheriffs  were  to  select  juries ; 
and  town  meetings,  unless  by  permission  of  the  governor, 
were  forbidden.     Gage,  the  British  commander-in-chief 
in  the  colonies,  was  made  governor  under  the  Act,  and 
four  regiments  were  given  him  as  a  support.    Any  magis 
trates,  officers,  or  soldiers  indicted  under  colonial  laws 
were  to  be  sent  for  trial  to  Nova  Scotia  or  Great  Britain. 
The  billeting  of  soldiers  in  the  town  of  Boston  was  legal 
ized.     The  Quebec  Act  extended  the  boundaries  of  the 
province  of  Canada  over  the  whole  territory  lying  north 
of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi.     Here  the  minis 
try  rested. 

58.  The  news  of  these  Acts  of  parliament  crystallized 
every  element  of  union  in  the  colonies.     The 

attack  on  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay 

was   undoubtedly  the  most   effective.     The  charters  of 


50  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  were  the  freest  of  the 
colonies ;  but  that  of  Massachusetts  was  certainly  next 
to  them.  If  Massachusetts  was  not  safe  against  such  an 
attack,  no  colony  was  safe.  The  ministry  had  forced  an 
issue  on  the  very  point  on  which  the  colonial  and  impe 
rial  theories  were  irreconcilable.  The  Boston  Port  Act 
furnished  a  grievance  so  concrete  as  to  obviate  the  neces 
sity  of  much  argument  on  other  points.  The  Quebec 
Act,  with  its  attempt  to  cut  off  the  northern  colonies 
from  the  western  expansion  to  which  they  all  looked 
hopefully,  was  bad  enough  in  itself,  but  it  brought  up 
with  it  the  element  of  religious  suspicion.  For  years 
the  distinctively  Puritan  element  had  dreaded  an  attempt 
to  establish  the  Church  of  England  in  the  colonies  j  and 
the  inclination  of  American  Episcopalians  to  look  to  the 
home  government  for  relief  against  unjust  local  restric 
tions  had  not  helped  to  decrease  the  feeling.  The  Puri 
tan  element  could  see  little  real  difference  between  Epis 
copacy  and  Catholicism :  and,  when  it  was  found  that  the 
Quebec  Act  practically  established  the  Roman  Catholic 
system  in  the  new  territory,  the  old  dread  revived  to  give 
the  agitation  a  hidden  but  strong  motive. 

59.  The  necessity  of  another  Congress  was  universally 
felt.  On  the  suggestion  of  Virginia  and  the  call  of  Mas- 
First  continen-  sachusetts,  it  met  at  Philadelphia  (September 
tai  congress.  ^  1774) .  All  the  colonies  but  Georgia  were 
represented ;  and  Georgia  was  so  certainly  in  sympathy 
with  the  meeting  that  this  is  commonly  known  as  the 
First  Continental  Congress,  the  first  really  national 
body  in  American  history.  Its  action  was  still  mainly 
deliberative.  It  adopted  addresses  to  the  king,  and  to 
the  people  of  the  colonies,  of  Quebec,  and  of  Great 
Britain,  and  passed  a  declaration  of  colonial  rights,  sum- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  51 

ming  up  the  various  Acts  of  parliament  which  were 
held  to  be  in  violation  of  these  rights.  But  its  tone  was 
changed,  though  its  language  was  still  studiously  con 
trolled  and  dignified.  It  was  significant  that,  for  the 
first  time,  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  were  ignored  in 
the  matter  of  petitioning :  it  was  at  last  seen  to  be  an 
awkward  concession  even  to  memorialize  parliament. 
The  tone  of  a  sovereign  about  to  take  his  seat  is  per 
ceptible  in  the  letter  of  Congress  to  the  colonies  which 
had  not  yet  sent  delegates.  And  at  least  two  steps  were 
taken  which,  if  not  an  assumption  of  sovereign  powers, 
were  evidently  on  the  road  to  it.  The  first  was  the  prep 
aration  of  Articles  of  Association,  to  be  signed  by  the 
people  everywhere,  and  to  be  enforced  by  committees  of 
safety  chosen  by  the  people  of  cities  and  towns.  These 
articles  bound  the  signers  to  stop  the  importation  of  all 
goods  from,  and  the  exportation  of  all  goods  to,  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  the  use  of  such  goods,  and  the 
slave  trade.  The  manner  of  the  enforcement  of  the  arti 
cles  was  evidently  an  incipient  suspension  of  all  authority 
proceeding  from  the  mother  country  and  the  substitution 
of  a  general  popular  authority  for  it.  The  other  step 
was  a  resolution,  adopted  October  8,  as  follows:  —  "That 
this  Congress  approve  the  opposition  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the 
execution  of  the  late  Acts  of  parliament ;  and  if  the 
same  shall  be  attempted  to  be  carried  into  execution  by 
force,  in  such  case  all  America  ought  to  support  them  in 
their  opposition."  This  was  simply  an  ultimatum  :  in  the 
opinion  of  Congress,  the  ministry  could  take  no  further 
step  except  that  of  attempting  to  enforce  its  Acts,  and 
the  colonies  would  resist  such  an  attempt  as  an  act  of 
war.  Before  the  next  Congress  met  the  conditions  had 


52  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

been  fuliilled.  The  agents  of  the  ministry  had  applied 
force  ;  Massachusetts  had  resisted  by  force  ;  and  the  new 
Congress  found  itself  the  representative  of  a  nation  at 
war,  still  acknowledging  the  king,  but  resisting  the  oper 
ations  of  his  armies.  Having  summoned  a  new  Congress 
to  meet  at  Philadelphia  on  the  10th  of  May  following, 
and  having  cleared  the  way  for  its  action,  the  First  Con 
tinental  Congress  adjourned. 

60.  It  is  an  unpleasant  task  to  record  the  successive 
steps  by  which  two  peoples,  so  exactly  similar  to  one 
another  in  every  characteristic,  so  far  removed  from  one 
another,  and  so  ignorant  of  one  another's  feelings,  ad 
vanced  alternately  to  a  point  where  open  collision  was 
inevitable.  From  the  standpoint  of  "no  taxation  with 
out  representation,"  which  Pitt  and  his  school  of  Whigs 
had  approved,  the  colonists  had  now  been  driven  by  the 
suicidal  logic  of  their  opponents  to  the  far  more  consis 
tent  position  of  "  no  legislation  without  representation," 
which  the  Pitt  school  had  never  been  willing  to  grant, 
and  which  was  radically  inconsistent  with  the  British 
"  imperial "  theory.  Either  the  previous  legislation  of 
parliament  was  to  remain  a  dead  letter,  or  it  must  be 
executed  by  force ;  and  that  meant  war.  Massachusetts 
was  already  on  the  brink  of  that  event.  Gage,  the  new 
governor,  had  refused  to  meet  the  assembly ;  he  had  forti 
fied  himself  in  Boston,  and  was  sending  out  spies  as  if 
into  hostile  territory.  All  regular  government  was  sus 
pended  or  remanded  to  the  towns ;  and  the  people  were 
organized  into  "  minute  men,"  pledged  to  move  at  a  min 
ute's  notice.  The  first  hostile  movement  of  Gage  would 
be  the  signal  for  the  struggle.  War,  in  fact,  had  come 
to  be  a  possibility  in  the  thoughts  of  every  one.  The 
new  governor  of  Canada,  Carleton,  was  sent  out  with  in- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  53 

strtictions  to  levy  the  people  and  Indians  of  that  prov 
ince,  in  order  that  they  might  be  marched  against  rebels 
in  any  province  of  North  America.  Governor  Tryon's 
defeat  of  the  insurgent  people  of  North  Carolina  at  the 
Alemance  (§  54)  furnished  a  tempting  precedent  to  Gov 
ernor  Gage  in  Massachusetts.  There  was  strong  pressure 
upon  him  to  induce  him  to  follow  it.  The  king's  speech 
at  the  opening  of  parliament  (November  29,  1774)  spoke 
of  the  prevalent  "resistance  and  disobedience  to  the 
law"  in  Massachusetts;  the  ministry  urged  Gage  to 
arrest  the  colonial  leaders,  even  though  hostilities  should 
follow ;  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  presented  a  joint 
address  to  the  king,  declaring  Massachusetts  to  be  in 
rebellion,  and  offering  all  the  resources  of  the  empire  to 
suppress  the  rebellion  ;  and  the  king,  in  reply,  announced 
his  intention  of  acting  as  parliament  wished. 

61.  The  inevitable  collision  was  narrowly  escaped  in 
February,  1775.  Gage  sent  a  water  expedition  to  Salem 
to  search  for  powder ;  but  the  day  was  Sunday,  Lexington  and 
and  a  conflict  was  prevented  by  the  ministers,  concord. 
Another  expedition  (April  19)  was  more  momentous. 
It  set  out  for  Concord,  a  little  village  some  twenty  miles 
from  Boston,  to  seize  a  stock  of  powder  which  was  re 
ported  to  be  gathered  there.  At  daybreak  the  troops 
marched  into  the  village  of  Lexington,  on  their  road. 
They  found  some  minute  men  who  had  been  hastily 
summoned,  for  intelligence  had  been  sent  out  from 
Boston  that  the  expedition  was  coming.  There  was 
a  hurried  order  from  an  officer  that  the  militia  should 
disperse,  then  a  volley  from  his  men  and  a  few  answer 
ing  shots,  and  the  first  blood  of  the  American  revolution 
had  been  shed.  The  troops  went  on  to  Concord  and 
destroyed  the  stores  there.  But  by  this  time  the  whole 


54  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

country  was  up.  Messengers  were  riding  in  every  direc 
tion,  arousing  the  minute  men ;  and  their  mustering  made 
the  return  to  Boston  more  dangerous  than  the  advance 
had  been.  When  the  troops  began  their  return  march 
the  continuous  fire  from  fences,  trees,  and  barns  along 
the  route  soon  converted  the  retreat  into  a  rout.  The 
opportune  arrival  of  a  rescuing  party  from  Boston  saved 
the  whole  force  from  surrender,  but  the  pursuit  was  kept 
up  until  the  expedition  took  refuge  under  the  guns  of 
the  war  vessels  at  the  water-side.  The  next  morning  the 
isthmus  which  connected  the  town  of  Boston  with  the 
mainland  was  blockaded ;  the  siege  of  Boston  was  formed ; 
and  the  revolution  had  begun. 

62.  The  news  of  Lexington  and  Concord  fights  set  the 
continent  in  a  flame,  but  every  feature  of  the  outburst 
showed  the  still  thoroughly  English  characteristics  of  the 
people.  For  nine  long  years  they  had  been  schooling 
themselves  to  patience  ;  and,  as  their  impatience  became 
more  difficult  to  control,  it  was  shown  most  strongly  in 
their  increasingly  scrupulous  care  to  insist  upon  the  letter 
of  the  law.  Even  in  the  first  open  conflict  the  colonists 
were  careful  to  base  their  case  on  their  legal  right  to  use 
"  the  king's  highway  " ;  and  Congress  carefully  collected 
and  published  depositions  going  to  show  that  the  troops 
had  violated  this  right  and  had  fired  first.  There  was 
everything  in  the  affairs  of  Lexington  and  Concord  to 
arouse  an  intense  popular  excitement :  the  mustering  of 
undisciplined  farmers  against  regular  troops,  the  stern 
sense  of  duty  which  moved  it,  the  presence  and  encourage 
ment  of  the  ministers,  the  sudden  desolation  of  homes 
which  had  never  known  war  before,  were  things  which 
stirred  every  pulse  in  the  colonies  when  they  were  told. 
But  there  was  no  need  of  waiting  for  such  stories. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  UNION.          55 

When  the  dam  burst,  the  force  which  had  been  stored  up 
for  nine  years  took  everything  away  before  it.  The  news 
was  hurried  by  express  along  the  roads  to  the  southward ; 
men  left  the  plough  in  the  furrow  when  they  heard  it, 
and  rode  off  to  Boston;  town  committees  of  safety  col 
lected  money  and  provisions  and  sent  them  to  the  same 
point ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  month  the  mainland 
around  Boston  harbor  was  occupied  by  a  shifting  mass 
of  undisciplined  half-armed  soldiers,  sufficient  to  keep 
the  British  troops  cooped  up  within  the  peninsula  on 
which  the  town  was  built. 

63.  The  overturning  of  the  royal  governments  in  North 
America  followed  rapidly,  as  the  news  of  the  fights  at 
Lexington  and  Concord  spread  abroad.  In  popu|ar 
one  colony  after  another  the  lower  houses  of  governments. 
the  colonial  legislatures,  taking  the  name  of  "  provincial 
congresses,"  met  and  assumed  the  reins  of  government ; 
the  officers  of  militia  and  subordinate  magistrates  ac 
cepted  commissions  from  them  ;  and  the  colonial  officials, 
to  whose  advice  so  much  of  the  course  of  events  had 
been  due,  fled  to  England  or  to  the  nearest  depot  of 
royal  troops.  On  the  day  (May  10,  1775)  when  the 
stronghold  of  Ticonderoga,  the  key  of  the  gateway  to 
Canada,  was  taken  by  surprise  by  an  American  force 
under  Allen,  giving  the  besiegers  of  Boston  a  welcome 
supply  of  weapons  and  ammunition,  the  Sec-  second  conti- 
ond  Continental  Congress  met  at  Philadelphia.  nental  c°"£™**- 
It  came,  under  new  circumstances,  to  redeem  the  pledge 
which  its  predecessor  had  given  that  all  the  colonies 
would  support  Massachusetts  in  resisting  force  by  force. 
It  was  thus  the  representative  of  a  united  people,  or 
of  nothing.  The  struggle  for  union  had  been  so  far 
successful. 


56  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


64.  This  fact  of  union  has  colored  the  whole  subse 
quent  history  of  the  country.  The  Articles  of  Associa 
tion  had  really  preceded  it  by  a  substitution  of  general 
popular  government,  however  clumsy  in  form,  for  the 
previously  recognized  governments  ;  in  so  far  the  author 
ity  of  the  various  colonies  was  also  suspended,  and  a 
general  national  organization  took  their  place.  It  was 
soon  found  that  the  colonial  organizations  had  too  much 
innate  strength  to  be  got  rid  of  in  this  summary  fashion ; 
they  held  their  own,  and,  as  soon  as  imminent  danger 
had  disappeared,  they  succeeded  in  tearing  so  much 
power  from  the  Continental  Congress  as  to  endanger  the 
national  existence  itself.  But,  when  the  Second  Conti 
nental  Congress  met,  it  met  (as  Von  Hoist  maintains)  as 
a  purely  revolutionary  body,  limited  by  no  law,  and  by 
nothing  else  but  by  its  success  in  war  and  the  support 
which  it  was  to  receive  from  the  people,  without  regard 
to  colony  governments.  With  the  energy  and  reckless 
ness  of  a  French  revolutionary  body  it  might  have 
blotted  out  the  distinctions  between  colonies,  and  estab 
lished  a  centralized  government,  to  be  modified  in  time 
by  circumstances.  In  fact,  it  took  no  such  direction. 
It  began  its  course  by  recommendations  to  the  new 
colonial  governments ;  it  relied  on  them  for  executive 
acts ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  new  colonies  were  fairly  under 
way,  they  seized  on  the  power  of  naming  and  recalling 

Failure  of  *ke  delegates  to  the  Congress.  From  that  time 
the  first  national  the  decadence  of  the  Congress  was  rapid;  the 
system.  national  idea  became  dimmer  ;  and  the  asser 
tions  of  complete  sovereignty  by  the  political  units  be 
came  more  pronounced.  This  failure  of  the  Second 
Congress  to  appropriate  the  universal  national  powers 
which  were  within  its  grasp  is  responsible  for  two  oppo- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  57 

site  effects.  On  the  one  hand,  it  built  up  a  basis  for 
the  future  assertion  of  the  notion  of  State  sovereignty, 
necessarily  including  the  right  of  secession.  On  the  other, 
it  maintained  the  peculiar  feature  of  the  American  Union, 
its  large  State  liberty,  its  dislike  of  centralization,  and 
its  feeling  that  the  national  power  is  a  valuable  but 
dangerous  instrument  of  development.  The  effort  to 
find  a  compromise  between  the  two  forces  makes  up  the 
record  of  subsequent  national  politics,  ending  in  the 
present  assertion  of  the  largest  possible  measure  of 
State  rights,  but  under  the  guarantee  of  the  national 
power,  not  of  the  State's  own  sovereignty. 

65.  The  conversion  of  the  former  colonies  into 
"States"  followed  hard  upon  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
(§  72).  Since  that  time  the  States  have  The  state  sys- 
really  been  the  peculiar  feature  of  the  Ameri-  tem- 
can  system.  The  circumstances  just  mentioned  put  them 
into  a  position  in  which  they  held  all  real  powers  of 
government ;  and  they  are  still  the  residuary  legatees  of 
all  such  powers  as  have  not  been  taken  from  them  by 
the  national  power  or  by  their  State  constitutions.  In 
1775  they  differed  very  materially  in  their  organization, 
but  there  has  been  a  constant  tendency  to  approach  a 
general  type,  as  States  have  adopted  innovations  which 
have  proved  successful  in  other  States.  All  have  now 
governors,  legislatures  of  two  houses,  and  State  judicia 
ries.  The  governor,  except  in  a  few  States,  has  a  limited 
vote  on  legislation,  and  has  a  pardoning  power.  The 
State  legislature  is  supreme  in  all  subjects  relating  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  with  two  exceptions ;  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  imposes  certain  limita 
tions  on  them  (§  116),  and  there  is  an  evident  tendency 
in  the  later  State  constitutions  to  prohibit  the  legisla- 


58  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

tures  from  "special  legislation,"  and  to  provide  that, 
in  specified  subjects,  they  shall  pass  only  "  general 
laws,"  applicable  to  the  whole  State  and  all  citizens 
alike.  With  these  exceptions,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
a  more  complete  autonomy  than  is  possessed  by  the 
States  of  the  American  Union.  The  main  restriction 
upon  their  action  is  in  its  results  upon  their  welfare. 
They  may  even  repudiate  their  debts,  and  there  is  no 
power  which  can  make  them  pay ;  but,  even  in  respect 
to  this,  the  results  upon  the  credit  of  a  repudiating 
State  have  been  enough  to  check  others  in  any  action  of 
the  kind.  They  control  the  organization  of  the  State 
into  counties,  towns,  and  cities ;  they  touch  the  life  and 
interests  of  the  citizen  in  a  far  larger  degree  than  does 
the  Federal  Government ;  and,  in  many  points,  such  as 
that  of  taxation,  their  powers  are  co-ordinate  with  those 
of  the  Federal  Government,  so  that  the  two  departments 
of  the  American  governmental  system  operate  on  the 
same  subjects.  The  admission  of  new  States  (§  97)  has 
raised  the  number  of  the  original  thirteen  States  to 
thirty-eight,1  and  the  powers  of  the  new  States  are 
exactly  those  of  the  old  ones. 

66.  The  "force  resolution"  of  the  First  Congress 
(§  59)  shows  that  the  national  existence  of  the  United 
States,  in  a  purely  political  sense,  dates  from  the  fulfil 
ment  of  the  conditions  of  the  force  resolution  —  that  is, 
from  the  first  shot  fired  at  Lexington.  From  that 
instant  the  fact  of  union  was  consummated  in  the  sup 
port  given  to  Massachusetts  by  the  other  common 
wealths  ;  and  George  III.  was  king  no  longer  of  thirteen 


1  The  preliminary  steps  for  the  admission  of  four  new  States,  how 
ever,  were  taken  by  Congress  in  February,  1889. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   UNION.  59 

separate  kingdoms,  but  of  one.  The  fact  that  he  did 
not  recognize  the  union  did  not  alter  the  fact  of  union ; 
that  was  to  be  decided  by  events.  The  success  of  the 
struggle  for  union  gave  the  United  States  a  date  for  the 
political,  as  distinguished  from  the  legal,  existence  of 
the  nation  (April  19,  1775). 


60  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


IV. 
THE   STRUGGLE  FOR,   INDEPENDENCE. 

1775-83. 

67.  THE  Second  Congress  adopted  the  "  army  "  around 
Boston    as    "  the   American    continental   army " ;   rules 

and  articles  of  war  were  formulated  for  it ; 

and  Ward,  Charles  Lee  (a  British  soldier 
of  fortune),  Schuyler  and  Putnam  were  named  as 
major-generals,  with  eight  brigadiers,  and  Gates  as 
adjutant-general.  Union,  though  accomplished,  was 
still  weak.  Sectional  interests,  feelings,  and  prejudices 
were  strong ;  and  the  efforts  of  the  delegates  to  accom 
modate  them  had,  as  one  result,  the  appearance  of 
Washington  on  the  historical  stage  which  he  was  to  fill 
so  completely.  He  had  been  of  special  service  on  the 
military  committee  of  Congress ;  and  the  Massachusetts 
members — the  Adamses  and  others  —  saw  in  him  the 
man  whose  appointment  as  commander-in-chief  would  be 
most  acceptable  to  all  the  sections,  and  would  "  cement 
and  secure  the  union  of  these  colonies,"  as  John  Adams 
wrote  in  a  private  letter.  He  was  chosen  unanimously, 
and  commissioned,  and  set  out  for  Boston.  But  another 
collision,  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  had  taken  place  on 
the  date  of  his  commission  (June  17). 

68.  In  one  of  the  irregular  surgings  of  the  colonial 
force  around  Boston,  it  took  possession  of  Breed's   (now 
known  as  Bunker  )  Hill,  some  75  feet  high,  commanding 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  61 

Boston,  and  separated  from  it  by  a  sheet  of  water.  The 
British  officers  might  have  landed  men  so  as  to  take  the 
line  of  entrenchments  in  the  rear,  or  might  have  raked  it 
from  end  to  end  from  the  water.  They  chose  to  send 
2500  men  over  in  boats,  and  charge  straight  up  the  hill. 
The  all-important  question  was  whether  the  "  embattled 
farmers  "  within  the  works  would  stand  fire. 
Not  a  shot  from  the  line  of  entrenchments  re 
turned  the  scattering  fire  of  the  advancing  column  until 
the  latter  was  within  a  hundred  feet ;  then  a  sheet  of  flame 
ran  along  the  line,  and,  when  the  smoke  cleared  away, 
the  charging  troops  were  retreating  down  the  hill.  The 
officers  moved  the  men  again  to  the  assault,  with  exactly 
the  same  result.  At  the  third  assault  the  ammunition 
of  the  farmers  was  exhausted ;  but  they  retreated  fight 
ing  stubbornly  with  gun-stocks,  and  even  with  stones. 
"  The  success,"  wrote  Gage  to  the  ministry,  "  has  cost  us 
dear  ;  the  trials  we  have  had  show  the  rebels  are  not  the 
despicable  rabble  too  many  have  supposed  them  to  be." 
He  had  lost  1100  out  of  2500  men.  A  serious  Ameri 
can  loss  was  that  of  Warren,  a  Boston  leader  of  high 
promise. 

69.  While  Washington  was  endeavoring  to  form  an 
army  out  of  the  heterogeneous  material  around  Boston, 
another  American  force  was  attempting  to 
drive  the  British  out  of  Canada.  On  the  last 
day  of  the  year  1775,  in  an  assault  on  Quebec,  one  of 
the  leaders,  Montgomery,  was  killed,  and  another,  Ben 
edict  Arnold,  was  wounded.  Shortly  afterwards  the 
American  force  was  driven  back  into  the  northern  part 
of  New  York,  near  the  Canada  line,  where  it  held  its 
ground.  Congress  began  in  June  the  issue  of  bills  of 
credit,  or  "  continental  currency,"  as  a  substitute  for 


62  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

taxation  —  a  most  unhappy  step.     The  bills  soon  began 

to  depreciate.     Congress  insisted  on  holding  them  to  be 

legal   tender ;    but  it  had   not  seized,   as   it 

Paper  currency.          . 

might  nave  done,  the  power  ot  taxation,  in 
order  to  provide  for  the  redemption  of  the  bills  ;  and  its 
recommendation  to  committees  of  safety  to  treat  as  ene 
mies  of  their  country  those  who  should  refuse  to  receive 
the  bills  at  their  face  value,  never  accomplished  its 
object.  Successive  emissions  of  paper  enabled  Congress 
to  support  the  army  for  a  few  years,  and  even  to  begin 
the  organization  of  a  navy.  Privateers  and  public  armed 
vessels  had  been  sent  out  by  the  several  colonies;  the 
first  American  fleet,  of  eight  vessels,  sailed  in  February, 
1776,  but  its  cruise  accomplished  little. 

70.  All  this  time,  Congress  had  been  protesting  its 
horror  of  the  idea  of  independence ;  and  the  colonial 
Drift  towards  congresses  had  instructed  their  delegates  not 
independence.  ^0  countenance  any  such  project.  The  last 
petition  to  the  king  was  adopted  by  Congress  in  July, 
1775,  and  sent  to  London  by  the  hands  of  Richard  Penn. 
It  besought  the  king  to  consider  the  complaints  of  the 
colonists,  and  to  obtain  the  repeal  of  the  Acts  which 
they  had  found  intolerable.  The  news  of  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill  had  preceded  Penn ;  the  king  refused  to 
answer  the  petition ;  but  by  a  proclamation  (August  23, 
1775)  he  announced  the  existence  of  open  rebellion  in 
the  colonies,  and  called  on  all  good  subjects  to  give  any 
information  of  those  persons  in  Great  Britain  who  were 
aiding  and  abetting  the  rebellion.  This  was  but  the 
first  of  a  series  of  attacks  on  that  strong  sentiment  in 
Great  Britain  which  felt  the  cause  of  the  colonies  to  be 
the  old  cause  of  English  liberty.  At  the  opening  of  the 
struggle,  this  sentiment  was  intense  :  officers  resigned 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.      63 

their  commissions  rather  than  serve  in  America ;  the 
great  cities  took  open  ground  in  favor  of  the  colonies ; 
and  some  of  the  English  middle  classes  wore  mourning 
for  the  dead  at  Lexington.  As  the  war  increased  in  its 
intensity,  this  sentiment  necessarily  decreased ;  but, 
even  while  parliament  was  supporting  the  war  by  votes 
of  more  than  two  to  one,  the  ministry  was  constantly 
hampered  by  the  notorious  consciousness  that  the  real 
heart  of  England  was  not  in  it.  Even  when  25,000  men 
were  voted  at  the  king's  wish,  provision  had  to  be  made 
to  obtain  them  from  Germany.  Privilege  and  officialism 
were  against  the  colonies ;  the  popular  heart  and  con 
science  were  either  ignorant  or  in  favor  of  them. 

71.  But  in  America  everything  spoke  of  war.  Howe, 
who  had  succeeded  Gage,  passed  a  very  bad  winter.  His 
men  were  often  short  of  supplies ;  their  quarters  were 
uncomfortable ;  and  their  efforts  to  better  their  position 
were  a  severe  infliction  on  the  inhabitants.  Along  the 
coast  the  commanders  of  British  ships  acted  everywhere 
as  if  on  the  borders  of  an  enemy's  country ;  Gloucester, 
Bristol,  Falmouth,  and  other  defenceless  towns  were  can 
nonaded  ;  and  the  flag  of  the  king  tended  more  and  more 
to  appear  that  of  an  enemy.  On  the  first  day  of  the  new 
year  the  distinctive  standard  of  the  thirteen  united  col 
onies  was  raised  at  Washington's  headquarters.  It  intro 
duced  the  stripes  of  the  present  flag,  but  retained  the 
crosses  of  St.  George  and  St.  Andrew  on  a  blue  ground  in 
the  corner,  the  whole  implying  the  surviving  acknowledg 
ment  of  the  royal  power,  with  the  appearance  of  a  new 
nation.  When  independence  had  eliminated  the  royal 
element,  the  crosses  were  replaced  (1777)  by  stars,  as  at 
present.  Congress  had  been  compelled  to  go  so  far  in 
national  action  as  to  threaten  reprisals  for  the  threats  of 


64  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

special  punishment  by  the  ministry.  The  first  step 
towards  the  ultimate  application  for  admission  to  the  fam 
ily  of  nations  was  really  taken  in  November,  1775,  when 
Franklin,  Jay,  and  three  other  delegates,  were  appointed 
a  committee  to  maintain  intercourse  with  friends  of  the 
colonies  "  in  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  elsewhere  "  ;  the 
main  importance  of  the  appointment  was  in  the  last  two 
words.  The  end  of  the  year  left  independence  in  the  air, 
though  hardly  spoken  of. 

72.    Thomas  Paine  turned  the  scale  (January  9,  1776) 

by  the  publication  of  his  pamphlet  Common  Sense.     His 

argument  was  that  independence  was  the  only 

Paine. 

consistent  line  to  pursue ;  that  "  it  must  come 
to  that  some  time  or  other  "  ;  that  it  would  only  be  more 
difficult  the  more  it  was  delayed ;  and  that  independence 
was  the  surest  road  to  union.  Written  in  simple  language, 
it  was  read  everywhere ;  and  the  open  movement  to  in 
dependence  dates  from  its  publication.  In  the  meantime 
events  were  urging  Congress  on.  Washington  in  March 
seized  and  fortified  Dorchester  Heights,  to  the  south  of 
Boston  and  commanding  it.  Before  the  British  could 
move  upon  the  works,  they  had  been  made  so  strong  that 
Evacuation  of  the  garrison  evacuated  the  place  (March  17, 
Boston.  1776),  sailing  away  to  Halifax  on  the  fleet. 
For  the  moment  the  British  had  hardly  an  organized  force 
within  the  thirteen  colonies  ;  Charles  Lee  had  just  seized 
New  York  city  and  harbor :  and  the  ministry  seemed  not 
only  hostile,  but  impotent.  The  spirit  of  Congress  rose 
with  success.  It  had  already  ordered  (November  25, 
1775),  on  receipt  of  news  of  instructions  to  British  war- 
vessels  to  attack  American  seaport  towns  "  as  in  the  case 
of  actual  rebellion,"  that  British  war-vessels  or  transports 
should  be  open  to  capture;  now  (March  23,  1776)  it 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPEXDENCE.      65 

declared  all  British  vessels  lawful  prize.  It  then  went 
on  (April  6)  to  open  all  American  ports  to  the  vessels  of 
all  other  nations  than  Great  Britain,  still  forbidding  the 
slave  trade.  It  had  even  opened  communication  with  the 
French  court,  which,  using  the  name  of  a  fictitious  firm 
in  Paris,  was  shipping  money,  arms,  and  supplies  to  the 
colonies.  All  these  were  acts  of  an  independent  power  ; 
and  colony  after  colony,  changing  the  colonial  into  State 
forms  of  government,  was  instructing  its  delegates  to  vote 
for  independence.  In  May  some  of  the  colonies  had 
become  too  impatient  to  wait  longer,  for  it  was  evident 
that  the  king  had  finally  ranged  himself  against  the  new 
American  nation.  Virginia  spoke  in  most  emphatic  tones ; 
and  one  of  her  delegates,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  moved  a 
resolution  in  Congress  for  independence,  seconded  by  John 
Adams  (June  7,  1776).  A  committee  to  draw  up  a  dec 
laration  in  conformity  with  the  resolution  was  chosen, 
consisting  of  Thomas  Jefferson  of  Virginia,  John  Adams, 
Franklin,  Roger  Sherman  of  Connecticut,  and  Robert  R. 
Livingston  of  New  York ;  but  the  resolution  was  not 
adopted  until  July  2,  as  follows  :  —  "  Resolved  that  these 
united  colonies  are  and  of  right  ought  to  be  free  and 
independent  States ;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  alle 
giance  to  the  British  crown ;  and  that  all  political  con 
nection  between  them  and  the  state  of  Great  Britain  is 
and  ought  to  be  totally  dissolved." 

73.   Jefferson  had  come  from  Virginia  with  the  repu 
tation  of  a  very  ready  and  able  writer  ;  and  the  commit 
tee,  by  common  consent,  left  the  preparation  Declaration  of 
of  the  first  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde-  ' Dependence. 
pendence  to  him.     He  wrote  it  almost  at  one  heat ;  and, 
though  parts  of  it  were  rejected  or  modified  by  Congress, 
the  whole  instrument,  as  it  was  adopted  by  that  body 


66  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


(July  4,  1776),  must  stand  as  Jefferson's  own  work. 
John  Adams  was  its  champion  on  the  floor  of  Congress, 
for  Jefferson  was  not  a  public  speaker,  —  and  the  coinci 
dence  of  the  deaths  of  these  two  men,  just  fifty  years 
afterwards  (July  4,  1826),  was  a  remarkable  one.  The 
language  of  the  Declaration,  like  that  of  all  the  Ameri 
can  state-papers  of  the  time,  was  strong  and  direct. 
Ignoring  parliament,  it  took  every  act  of  oppression 
which  had  been  aimed  at  the  colonies  as  the  act  and 
deed  of  the  king;  it  concluded  that  "a  prince  whose 
character  is  thus  marked  by  every  act  which  may  define 
a  tyrant,  is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free  people  " ;  and 
it  announced  the  independence  of  the  United  States  in 
the  terms  of  the  resolution  already  stated.  The  date  of 
its  adoption  is,  by  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
the  date  of  the  legal  existence  of  the  United  States  in 
matters  of  municipal  law. 

74.  Meanwhile  clouds  were  gathering  about  the  young 
republic.  A  British  expedition  was  beaten  off  from 
Charleston  (June  28)  ;  but  two  days  afterwards  a 
stronger  force,  under  Howe,  landed  on  Staten  Island, 
just  below  New  York  city.  The  ministry,  abandoning 
Attack  on  the  New  England,  had  decided  to  transfer  the 
middle  colonies.  war  ^o  ^[IQ  middle  colonies.  Here  was  the 
originally  alien  element  among  the  colonies  (§  7),  though 
the  ministry  was  disappointed  in  it ;  here  was  the  com 
mercial  element,  which  had  sometimes  been  willing  to 
prefer  profit  to  patriotism ;  above  all,  the  Hudson  gave 
a  safe  path  for  British  frigates,  so  that  the  British  forces 
might  control  at  the  same  time  the  road  into  Canada  and 
the  moat  which  should  cut  off  New  England  from  the 
other  colonies.  Most  of  the  reasons  which  made  the 
opening  of  the  Mississippi  a  severe  blow  to  the  Confed- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  67 

eracy  in  1863,  applied  to  the  capture  of  New  York  city 
and  the  operations  in  the  Hudson  river  in  1776. 

75.  Washington   had   hurried  to   New  York  city  as 
soon  as  Boston  had  surrendered,  but  his  preparations 
were  not  far  advanced  when  Howe  appeared  (June  30). 
He  and  his  brother,  Admiral  Lord  Howe,  the  commander 
of  the  fleet,  had  high  hopes  of  receiving  the  confidence 
of  both  parties  to  the  struggle,  by  reason  of  their  hered 
itary  connection  with  the  crown  and  the  liking  of  the 
colonies  for  their  elder  brother,  killed  at  Ticonderoga ; 
and  they  brought  conciliatory  proposals  and  the  consent 
of  the  ministry  to  an  unofficial  exchange  of  prisoners. 
The  country  was  now  committed  to  independence,  and 
in  August,  Howe  began  offensive  operations.     Washing 
ton's  force  numbered  27,000,  about  four-fifths  of  them 
having  never   seen  action;   and  about  one-third  of   his 
army   had  been  placed  on  Long   Island.      Howe   had 
31,000  trained   soldiers,  largely  Hessians ;    and  he  de 
barked  20,000  of  them  on  Long  Island,  beating  Putnam, 
the  American  commander   there,  and  driving  him  into 
Brooklyn  (August  27).    The  British  hesitated  Battle  of  Long 
to  attack  the  American  works  there,  so  that       lsland- 
Washington  was  able  to   draw  off  the  defeated  force, 
and  the  British  followed  slowly  to  the  New  York  side 
of  the  river.     Through  September  and  October,  Wash 
ington  retreated  northwards,  fighting  stubbornly,  until 
he  reached  the   strong  defensive   positions   where   the 
mountains  begin  to  make  a  figure  in  the  landscape  north 
of  New  York  city.     Here  he  faced  about,  and  prepared 
to  give  battle  from  behind  fortifications.     Again  Howe 
hesitated,  and  then  turned  back  to  occupy  New  York. 

76.  Howe  was  cut  off  from  the  water-way  to  Canada 
by  Washington's  fortification  of  the  highlands,  but  his 


68  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

lieutenant,  Cornwallis,  secured  a  lodgement  by  surprise  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Hudson,  and  thus  drew  Washington 
across  the  river  to  oppose  him.  Forced  to  retreat  through 

Washington's  New  Jersey,  pursued  by  the  British,  Wash- 
retreat,  ingtoii  at  least  used  up  the  month  of  Decem 
ber  in  the  retreat.  But  affairs  were  in  a  desperate 
plight.  His  army  had  been  driven  across  the  Delaware ; 
the  British  held  all  New  Jersey,  and  were  only  waiting 
for  the  river  to  freeze  over  to  "  catch  Washington  and 
end  the  war " ;  Philadelphia  was  in  a  panic,  and  Con 
gress  had  taken  refuge  in  Baltimore,  leaving  Washington 
with  almost  dictatorial  powers;  hosts  of  half-hearted 
people  were  taking  British  protections  and  returning  to 
their  allegiance ;  and  the  time  was  one  which  "  tried 
men's  souls."  Washington's  soul  was  proof  against  all 
tests ;  and  in  the  midst  of  his  discouragements  he  had 
already  planned  that  which  was  to  be  the  turning-point 
of  the  war.  The  advance  post  of  the  British  was  one  of 
Hessians,  under  Kahl,  at  Trenton,  on  the  Delaware. 

Battles  of  Tren-  Seizing  all  the  boats  on  the  river,  and  choos- 
ton  ing  the  night  of  Christmas,  on  the  probability 
that  the  Hessians  would  be  drunk,  he  crossed  the  river, 
assaulted  the  town  with  the  bayonet,  and  captured  the 
garrison.  Taking  his  prisoners  to  Philadelphia,  he  re- 
crossed  the  river  on  the  last  day  of  the  year,  and  reoc- 
cupied  Trenton.  Cornwallis  brought  almost  all  his 
available  forces  towards  that  place;  and  Washington's 
diminishing  army  was  in  greater  danger  than  before. 
Leaving  his  camp-fires  burning,  he  abandoned 

and  Princeton.    ,   .  ,  .     ,    .  n    ,,  -• 

his  position  by  night,  swept  around  the  sleep 
ing  British  forces,  met,  fought,  and  captured  at  Prince 
ton  (January  3,  1777)  a  detachment  on  its  march  to 
Trenton,  and  threatened  the  British  base  of  supplies  at 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  69 

New  Brunswick.     It  was  only  a  threat ;  but  it  served  its 
purpose  of  drawing  Cornwallis  off  from  Philadelphia. 

77.  New  Jersey  is  crossed  from  south-west  to  north 
east  by  a  spur  of  the  Alleghanies.     Thus  far  operations 
had  been   confined  to   the   flat   country  to   the   south; 
Washington  now  swept  on  to  the  northern  or  mountain 
ous  part,  and  the  day  after  Princeton  fixed  his  headquar 
ters  at  Morristown,  where  they  really  remained  almost 
all  through  the  rest  of  the  war.     He  was  aided  by  the 
unwillingness   of  the  British  to  attack  entrenchments. 
His  long  line  across  New  Jersey  was  everywhere  strong  ; 
the  British  could  now  reach  Philadelphia  only  by  pass 
ing  in  front  of  his  line  and  risking  a  flank  attack ;  and 
they  at  once  drew  in  their  outposts  to  New  Brunswick. 
With  the  exception  of  the  occupation  of  Newport  by  the 
British,  and  attacks  on  minor  outlying  places,  as  Dan- 
bury,  there  was  a  short  breathing  space. 

78.  Kalb,  Kosciusko,  Conway,  and  other  foreign  officers 
were  already  serving  in  the  American  army;   Pulaski, 
Steuben,  and  others  were  soon  to  come.     Some  of  the 
minor    foreign   acquisitions   of   this   sort   were   selfish, 
conceited,  and  troublesome ;  the  most  unselfish  and  de 
voted  was  the  young  Marquis  de  la  Fayette,  who  came 
this   year  with  a  shipload  of  supplies   as  his  gift  to 
the  republic.     Franklin  made  his  appearance 

at  the  French  court  (December  7,  1776)  as 
one  of  the  American  envoys,  and  soon  took  the  lead  in 
negotiations.  Shrewd,  sensible,  far-sighted,  and  prompt, 
never  missing  or  misusing  an  opportunity,  he  soon  suc 
ceeded  in  committing  the  French  Government,  in  all  but 
the  name,  as  an  ally  of  the  United  States ;  and,  though 
his  success  with  other  European  courts  was  small,  he 
opened  the  way  for  the  general  commercial  treaties  which 


70  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

followed  the  war.  His  unofficial  influence  was  a  more 
important  factor  in  his  work.  Carefully  maintaining 
the  character  of  a  plain  American  burgher,  he  seemed  to 
the  French  the  veritable  man  of  nature  for  whom  they 
had  been  longing.  The  pithy  sense  and  homely  wit 
which  had  given  force  to  his  Poor  Richard's  Almanac 
had  impressed  even  his  unemotional  countrymen  strongly ; 
his  new  audience  took  them  as  almost  inspired.  He,  and 
his  country  with  him,  became  the  fashion ;  and  it  became 
easier  for  the  Government  to  cover  its  own  supplies  to 
the  insurgents  by  an  appearance  of  embarrassment  in 
dealing  with  the  enthusiasm  of  its  subjects.  The  foreign 
aid,  however,  did  the  Americans  a  real  harm.  Congress, 
relying  upon  it,  greAV  more  and  more  into  the  character 
of  a  mere  agent  of  the  States  for  issuing  paper  and  bor 
rowing  money ;  and  the  taxing  function,  which  should 
have  been  forced  upon  it  from  the  beginning,  fell  more 
positively  into  the  hands  of  the  States.  As  the  national 
character  of  Congress  dwindled,  the  State  jealousies  and 
ambitions  of  its  delegates  increased ;  little  cliques  had 
their  favorite  officers  —  Gates,  Charles  Lee,  Conway, 
or  some  other  soldier  of  fortune;  and  Washington,  ne 
glected  and  harassed  by  turns,  must  have  found  it  diffi 
cult  to  face  Howe  with  half  his  number  of  men,  foil  the 
various  competitors  for  his  own  position,  and  maintain 
his  invariably  respectful  tone  towards  Congress. 

79.    In  July,  1777,  Burgoyne,  with  an  army  of  British, 

Germans,  and  Indians,  attempted  the  Hudson  river  route 

Burgoyne's  ex-  from  the  north,  and  forced  his  way  nearly  to 

pedition.      Albany.     The  utter  defeat  of  a  detachment 

at  Bennington  (August  16)  by  the  farmers  of  Vermont 

and  New  Hampshire  under  Stark,  the  atrocities  of  the 

Indians  before  they  deserted  Burgoyne's  standard,  and 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  71 

the  end  of  the  harvest  brought  abundant  reinforcements 
to   Gates,  whom  Congress  had   put  in  command.      He 
gained  the  battle  of  Bemis  Heights  (October  7),  and  ten 
days  afterwards  forced  Burgoyne  to  surrender  near  Sara 
toga.    The  news  of  this  success  brought  to     Saratoga. 
Franklin  (February  6,  1778)  the  desire  of  his    Treaty  with 
heart  in  a  treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  de-       France, 
fensive,  between  the  United  States  and  France,  and  this 
was  followed  in  the  next  month  by  war  between  Great 
Britain  and  France  and  an  ineffectual  proposal  for  recon 
ciliation  from  Great  Britain  to  the  United  States,  cover 
ing  colonial  representation  in  parliament  and  everything 
short  of  independence. 

80.  Meantime  Howe  had  taken  the  water-route  to 
Philadelphia,  by  way  of  the  ocean  and  Chesapeake  Bay, 
and  had  captured  the  city  (September  25,  capture  of  Phii- 
1777)  ;  but  Washington  had  at  least  made  his  adeiphia. 
army  capable  of  fighting  two  battles,  those  of  Chad's 
Ford  on  the  Brandy  wine  (September  11)  and  German- 
town  in  the  outskirts  of  Philadelphia  (October  4),  both 
stubbornly  contested.  Taking  up  winter-quarters  at  Valley 
Forge,  about  twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia, 
he  watched  Howe  vigilantly,  and  struggled 
manfully  with  the  responsibilities  of  supreme  command, 
which  the  fugitive  Congress  had  again  left  to  him,  with 
the  misery  and  almost  despair  of  his  own  men,  and  with 
the  final  intrigues  of  those  who  now  wished  to  supersede 
him  by  the  appointment  of  Gates.  In  June,  1778,  the 
news  of  the  treaty  with  France,  and  of  the  departure  of 
a  French  fleet  and  army  for  America,  compelled  Clinton, 
who  had  succeeded  Howe,  to  set  out  for  New  York,  in 
order  to  reunite  his  two  main  armies.  Washington  broke 
camp  at  once,  followed  him  across  New  Jersey,  and  over- 


72  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


took  the  rear  at  Monmouth,  or  Freehold  (June  29).     An 

indecisive  battle  enabled  the  British  to  gain  New  York 

Battle  of     city  ;  Washington  formed  his  line  from  Mor- 

Monmouth.  ristown  around  the  north  of  the  city,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  interpose  between  Clinton  and  Philadelphia  or 
New  England ;  and  these  positions  were  maintained 
until  the  Yorktown  campaign  began  in  1781.  Beyond 
skirmishes,  there  were  no  more  important  events  in  the 
north,  except  some  unsuccessful  attempts  to  recover  New 
port  with  French  assistance,  the  capture  of  Stony  Point 
by  Wayne  (July  15,  1779),  and  the  treason  of  the  Amer 
ican  commander  of  West  Point,  Benedict  Arnold,  with 
the  execution  of  the  British  adjutant-general,  Major 
John  Andr6,  whom  the  Americans  had  captured  within 
their  lines  while  he  was  carrying  on  the  negotiations 
(September,  1780). 

81.  Midsummer,  1778,  marks  the  beginning  of  the  end. 
33,000  men,  the  high-water  mark  of  the  British  army  in 
the  United  States,  had  maintained  a  footing  at  but  two 
places,  New  York  city  and  Newport;  the  ministry,  in  a 
war  which  had  no  real  popular  momentum,  found  Ger 
man  mercenaries  an  expensive  resource ;  and  the  Germans 
were  very  apt  to  desert  in  America.  An  extraordinary 
number  of  leading  men  in  England,  while  they  would 
not  hamper  the  nation  in  its  struggle,  made  no  scruple  of 
expressing  their  practical  neutrality  or  their  high  regard 
for  various  American  leaders.  France  was  now  in  the 
war,  and  Spain  and  Holland  were  soon  to  be  the  allies  of 
France.  The  difficulties  of  supplying  the  British  army 
were  now  aggravated  by  the  presence  of  French  fleets  in 
American  waters.  English  commerce  had  been  deci 
mated  by  American  privateers ;  and  Franklin  was  gather 
ing  vessels  in  France,  in  one  of  which  (the  "Bichard") 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  73 

Paul  Jones  was  to  fight  with  the  "  Serapis  "  one  of  the 
most  desperate  naval  battles  on  record  (September  23, 
1779) .     Perhaps  hopeless  of  success  in  the  Northern  and 
Middle  States,  the  ministry  decided  to  begin     Attack  on 
operations  in  the  south,  where  it  was  believed   the  southern 
that  the  slave  population  would  be  a  fatal 
source  of  weakness  to  the  Americans. 

82.   Late  in  1778  a  British  expedition  from  New  York 
captured  Savannah,  and  rapidly  took  possession  of  the 
thinly  populated  State  of  Georgia.  An  attempt  to  retake 
Savannah  in  the  following  year  cost  the  Americans  the 
life  of  Pulaski.     Evacuating  Newport,  and  leaving  only 
troops  enough  to  hold  New  York  city,  Clinton   sailed 
southward  and  captured  Charleston  (May  12,     capture  of 
1780).     Thence  his  forces  swept  over  South    Charleston. 
Carolina   until    they   had  reduced  it  to   a  submission 
broken  by  continual  outbursts  of  partisan  warfare  under 
Sumter,  Marion,  and  other  leaders.     This  work  finished, 
Clinton  returned  to  New  York,  leaving  Conwallis  in  com 
mand  in  the  south.     As  soon  as  the  summer  heats  had 
passed  away  Gates  entered  the  State  from  the  north 
with  a  militia  army,  and  was  badly  beaten  at       Battle 
Camden  (August  16)  by  an  inferior  British    °fCamden. 
force.     Even  North  Carolina  now  needed  defence,  and 
the  work  was  assigned  to  Greene,  one  of  the  best  of  the 
American  officers   developed    by  the   war.      The   com 
mander  of  his  light  troops,  Morgan,  met  his  British  rival, 
Tarleton,  at  the  Cowpens  (January  17),  and 
inflicted  upon  the  latter  the  first  defeat  he 
had  met  in  the  south.     This  event  brought  Cornwallis  up 
to  the  pursuit  of  the  victor.     Morgan  and  Greene  re 
treated  all  the  way  across  North  Carolina,  followed  by 
Cornwallis,  and  then,  having  raised  fresh  troops  in  Vir- 


74  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ginia,  they  turned  and  gave  battle  at  Guilford  Court 
House   (March  15,  1781).     Greene  was  beaten,  as  was 
Guiiford  Court  usually  the  case  with  him,  but  he  inflicted  so 
House.       heavy  a  loss  in  return  that  Cornwallis  retired 
to  the  coast  at  Wilmington  to  repair  damages.     Greene, 
energetic  as  well  as  cautious,  passed  on  to  the  south,  and 
gave  battle  to  Rawdon,  whom  Cornwallis  had  left  in  com 
mand  in  South  Carolina,  at  Hobkirk's  Hill 

Hobkirk's  Hill.        ,  .         .,    ,.„.  ,  ,  •  -r»    j_  -r» 

(April  25),  and  was  beaten  again.    But  Raw- 
don's  loss  was  so  severe  that  he  drew  in  his  lines  toward 
Charleston.      Greene   followed,  and  at  Eutaw   Springs 
(September  8)  fought  the  last  pitched  battle 
in  the  south.     He  was  beaten  again,  but  Raw- 
don  again  fell  back,  and  thereafter  did  all  that  man 
could  do  in  holding  the  two  cities  of  Charleston  and 
Savannah.     Greene  had  won  no  battle,  but  he  had  saved 
the  south. 

83.  Arnold,   now   a  general  in  the  British    service 
(§  80),  had  been  sent,  early  in  the  year,  to  make  a  lodge 
ment  in  Virginia.    It  seems  to  have  been  believed  by  the 
British  authorities  that  the  three  southernmost  States 
were  then  secure,  and  that  Virginia  could  be  carved  out 
next.     La  Fayette  was  sent  to  oppose  Arnold,  but  the 

Comwaiiis  in  latter  was  soon  relieved,  and  in  June,  Corn- 
Virginia.  Wallis  himself  entered  the  State.  He  had  not 
been  willing  to  serve  with  Arnold.  Directed  to  select 
a  suitable  position  for  a  permanent  post  on  the  Chesa 
peake,  he  had  chosen  Yorktown,  where,  with  the  troops 
already  in  Virginia,  he  fortified  his  army.  The  general 
ground  was  that  of  McClellan's  campaign  of  1862  (§  285), 
and  Grant's  of  1864-65  (§  296). 

84.  Washington,  reinforced  by  a  lately  arrived  force 
of  6000  excellent  French  troops  (July,  1780),  under  Ko- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  75 

chambeau,  was  still  watching  Clinton  at  New  York. 
The  news  that  De  Grasse's  French  fleet,  on  its  way  to 
the  American  coast,  would  enter  the  Chesapeake,  where 
Cornwallis  had  left  himself  open  to  the  chances  of  such 
an  event,  led  Washington  to  conceive  the  campaign 
which  captured  Cornwallis  and  ended  the  war.  He 
began  elaborate  preparations  for  an  attack  on  New  York, 
so  that  Clinton  actually  called  upon  Cornwallis  for  aid. 
Moving  down  the  Hudson,  he  kept  Clinton  in  ignorance 
of  any  movement  to  the  south  as  long  as  possible,  and 
then  changed  the  line  of  march  to  one  through  New 
Jersey.  The  allied  armies  passed  through  Philadelphia, 
were  hurried  down  the  Chesapeake,  and  drove  Cornwallis 
within  his  entrenchments  at  Yorktown.  De 
Grasse  had  arrived  August  30,  had  defeated 
the  British  fleet,  and  was  master  of  the  Chesapeake 
waters.  After  three  weeks'  siege,  Cornwallis,  having  ex 
hausted  a  soldier's  resources,  surrendered  his  army  of 
8000  men  (October  19,  1781). 

85.  The  country  at  large  had  really  been  at  peace 
for  a  long  time.  Everywhere,  except  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  British  forces,  the  people  were  work 
ing  almost  with  forgetfulness  that  they  had  ever  been 
English  colonists ;  and,  where  the  enemy  had  to  be 
reckoned  with,  they  were  looked  upon  much  as  the  early 
settlers  looked  on  bears  or  Indians,  as  an  unpleasant 
but  inevitable  item  in  the  debit  side  of  their  accounts. 
Their  legislatures  were  making  their  laws ;  their  gov 
ernors,  or  "  presidents,"  were  the  representatives  whom 
their  States  acknowledged;  nothing  but  an  American 
court  had  the  power  to  touch  a  particle  of  the  judicial 
interests  of  the  American  people ;  the  American  flag 
was  recognized  on  the  ocean ;  independence  was  a  fact, 


76  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  the  ministry  received  from  the  English  people  so 
emphatic  a  call  to  acknowledge  it  that  it  yielded  so  far 
as  to  propose  a  defensive  war.  The  House  of  Commons 
(March  4,  1782)  voted  to  regard  as  enemies  to  the  king 
and  country  all  who  should  advise  the  further  prosecu 
tion  of  the  war ;  the  Buckingham  ministry  succeeded  to 
power,  to  be  followed  shortly  by  the  Shelburne  minis 
try  ;  and  Eodney's  victory  over  De  Grasse  gave  the  new 
ministries  very  much  the  same  cover  for  an  unsuccessful 
peace  as  Jackson's  victory  at  New  Orleans  afforded  the 
United  States  in  1815  (§  181).  Franklin,  John  Adams, 
and  Jay,  the  American  negotiators,  concluded  the  pre 
liminary  treaty  of  peace,  by  which  Great  Britain  acknowl 
edged  the  independence  of  the  United  States  (November 
30,  1782)  ;  hostilities  ceased ;  and  the  definite 

Treaty  of  peace.  i      -i     i    /  n  in 

treaty  01  peace  was  concluded  (September  3, 
1783).  A  number  of  American  loyalists  (usually  called 
Tories)  accompanied  the  departing  armies. 

86.   In  the  winter  of  1778-79  George  Kogers  Clark,  a 
Kentucky  leader,  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  State 

of  Virginia,  had  led  a  force  of  backwoodsmen 

The  north-west.    .  ,          „       ,          „ ,   . 

into  the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  river, 
captured  the  British  posts  in  it,  and  made  the  soil  Amer 
ican  up  to  the  latitude  of  Detroit.  The  treaty  of  peace 
acknowledged  the  conquest,  and  even  more  than  this. 
It  settled  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United  States, 
so  far  as  the  longitude  of  the  Mississippi  river,  nearly  as 
it  now  runs ;  the  Mississippi  as  the  western  boundary 
down  to  31°  N.  lat.,  thence  east  on  that  line  to  the 
present  northern  boundary  of  Florida,  and  east  on  that 
to  the  Atlantic.  Great  Britain  restored  the  Floridas  to 
Spain,  so  that  the  new  nation  had  Great  Britain  as  a 
neighbor  on  the  north,  and  Spain  on  the  south  and  west. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  77 

Some  disposition  had  been  shown  to  exclude  the  Amer 
icans  from  the  fishing  ground  off  Newfoundland,  but  it 
was  abandoned.  The  United  States  by  the  treaty  entered 
the  family  of  nations  with  recognized  boundaries,  and  all 
the  territory  within  these  boundaries  could  be  recognized 
by  other  nations  only  as  the  property  of  the  United 
States.  But,  so  far  as  internal  arrangements  were  con 
cerned,  a  great  question  remained  to  be  settled.  There 
were  thirteen  organized  States,  covering  but  a  part  of 
this  territory ;  a  part  of  them  claimed  to  be  sole  proprie 
tors  of  the  western  territory  outside  of  the  present  State 
limits ;  and  it  remained  to  be  seen  whether  they  would 
make  good  their  claim,  or  the  other  States  would  compel 
them  to  divide,  or  the  new  national  power  would  compel 
as  clear  an  internal  as  an  international  recognition  of 
its  claim  (§  89). 

87.  The  American  army  was  now  disbanded,  its  officers 
receiving  a  grudging  recognition  of  their  claims  and  the 
privates  hardly  anything.  Poverty  was  to  blame  for 
much  of  this,  and  the  popular  suspicion  of  military 
power  for  the  rest.  Washington's  influence  was  strong 
enough  to  keep  the  dissatisfied  army  from  any  open 
revolt,  though  that  step  was  seriously  proposed.  The 
organization  of  the  hereditary  order  of  the  Cincinnati  by 
the  officers  brought  about  a  more  emphatic 

/»  -,-,.         ,.,.,  ,,         ,  _     The  Cincinnati. 

expression  01  public  dislike,  and  the  hered 
itary  feature  was  abandoned.  But,  wherever  the  officers 
and  men  went,  they  carried  a  personal  disgust  with  the 
existing  frame  of  government  which  could  not  but  pro 
duce  its  effect  in  time.  Their  miseries  had  been  largely 
due  to  it.  The  politicians  who  controlled  the  State  legis 
latures  had  managed  to  seize  the  reins  of  government  and 
reduce  Congress,  the  only  body  with  pretensions  to  a 


78  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

national  character^  to  the  position  of  a  purely  advisory 
body.  The  soldiery  knew  instinctively  that  the  lack  of 
power  to  feed  them  and  clothe  them,  the  payment  of  their 
scanty  wages  in  paper  worth  two  per  cent,  of  its  face  value, 
were  due  to  the  impotence  of  Congress  and  the  too  great 
power  of  the  States,  that  the  nation  presented  the  "  awful 
spectacle,"  as  Hamilton  called  it,  of  "  a  nation  without  a 
national  government " ;  and  the  commonest  toast  in  the 
army  was  "  Here's  a  hoop  to  the  barrel "  —  a  stronger 
national  government  to  bind  the  States  together. 

The  struggle  for  the  establishment  of  this  national 
government  is  the  next  step  in  the  development  of  the 
United  States,  but  to  reach  it  naturally  it  will  be  nec 
essary  to  go  back  into  the  midst  of  the  struggle  for 
independence. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     79 


V. 
THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT. 

1777-89. 

88.  THE  fact  that  the  Continental  Congress  was  really 
a  revolutionary  body,  not  limited  in  its  powers  by  any 
fundamental  law  imposed  by  the  underlying  popular 
sovereignty,  but  answering  most  closely  to  the  British 
parliament,  has  already  been  noted  (§  64).  This  state  of 
affairs  was  repugnant  to  all  the  instincts  and  prejudices  \ 
of  the  American  people,  and  of  the  delegates  who  repre 
sented  them.  Just  at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  Congress  set  about  preparing  a  Articles  of 
"form  of  confederation,"  which  should  ex-  confederation. 
press  exactly  the  relative  powers  of  the  State  and  na 
tional  governments.  Its  work  was  finished  November 
15,  1777,  and  recommended  to  the  States  for  adoption. 
Unluckily,  before  the  work  had  been  finished,  the  State 
legislatures  had  succeeded  in  establishing  their  power  to 
appoint  and  recall  at  pleasure  the  delegates  to  Congress, 
so  that  Congress  had  come  to  be  the  mere  creature  of 
the  State  legislatures.  The  "  Articles  of  Confederation," 
adopted  in  1777,  were  thus  calculated  for  the  meridian 
of  the  State  legislatures  which  were  to  pass  upon  them. 
The  new  government  was  to  be  merely  "  a  firm  league  of 
friendship  "  between  sovereign  States,  which  were  to  re 
tain  every  power  not  "expressly"  delegated  to  Congress; 
there  was  to  be  but  one  house  of  Congress,  in  which  each 


80  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

State  was  to  have  an  equal  vote,  with  no  national  execu 
tive  or  judiciary ;  and  Congress,  while  keeping  the  power 

r  to  borrow  money,  was  to  have  no  power  to  levy  taxes,  or 
to  provide  in  any  way  for  payment  of  the  money  bor 
rowed —  only  to  make  recommendations  to  the  States  or 
requisitions  on  the  States,  which  they  pledged  their  pub 
lic  faith  to  obey.  The  States  were  forbidden  to  make 
treaties,  war,  or  peace,  to  grant  titles  of  nobility,  to 
keep  vessels  of  war  or  soldiers,  or  to  lay  imposts  which 
should  conflict  with  treaties  already  proposed  to  France 
or  Spain.  Important  measures  required  the  votes  of 
nine  of  the  thirteen  States,  and  amendments  the  votes  of 
all.  Congress  had  hardly  more  than  an  advisory  power 

X  at  the  best.  It  had  no  power  to  prevent  or  punish 
offences  against  its  own  laws,  or  even  to  perform  effec 
tively  the  duties  enjoined  upon  it  by  the  Articles  of 
Confederation.  It  alone  could  declare  war,  but  it  had  no 
power  to  compel  the  enlistment,  arming,  or  support  of 
an  army.  It  alone  could  fix  the  needed  amount  of 
revenue,  but  the  taxes  could  only  be  collected  by  the 

X  States  at  their  own  pleasure.  It  alone  could  decide  dis 
putes  between  the  States,  but  it  had  no  power  to  compel 
either  disputant  to  respect  or  obey  its  decisions.  It 
alone  could  make  treaties  with  foreign  nations,  but  it 
had  no  power  to  prevent  individual  States  from  violating 
them.  Even  commerce,  foreign  and  domestic,  was  to  be 
regulated  entirely  by  the  States,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  State  selfishness  began  to  show  itself  in  the  regu 
lation  of  duties  on  imports.  In  everything  the  States 
were  to  be  sovereign,  and  their  creature,  the  Federal 
Government,  was  to  have  only  strength  enough  to  bind 
the  States  into  nominal  unity,  and  only  life  enough  to 
assure  it  of  its  own  practical  impotence. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     81 

89.  Most  of  the  States  signed  the  Articles  at  once ; 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Maryland  held  out  against 
ratifying  them  for  from  two  to  four  years.    The  western 
The   secret   of  their   resistance   was   in   the      territory. 
claims  to  the  western  territory  already  mentioned  (§§  34, 
86).     The  three  recalcitrant  States  had  always  had  fixed 
western  boundaries,  and  had  no  legal  claim  to  a  share  in 
the  western  territory ;  the  Articles,  while  providing  for 
the  decision  of  disputes  between  individual  States,  were 
careful  to  provide  also  that  "  no  State  shall  be  deprived 
of  territory  for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States  " ;  and 
this  meant  that  those  States  whose  charters  carried  them 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  while   admitting  the  national  au 
thority  to  limit   their   claims  by  the  Mississippi  river, 
were  to  divide  up   the  western  territory  among   them. 
New  Jersey  and  Delaware  gave  up  the  struggle  in  1778 
and  1779  j  but  Maryland  would  not  and  did  not  yield, 
until  her  claims  were  satisfied. 

90.  Dr.  H.  B.  Adams  has  shown  that  the  whole  ques 
tion  of  real  nationality  for  the  United  States  was  bound 
up   in  this  western   territory ;    that  even  a  !ts  re|ations  to 
"  league   government "    could    not    continue     the  Union- 
long  to  govern  a  great  and  growing  territory  like  this 
without   developing  into   a  real   national    government, 
even  without  a  change  of  strict  law ;  and  that  the  Mary 
land  leaders  were  working  under  a  complete  conscious 
ness  of  these  facts.      It  is  creditable,  however,  to  the 
change  which  the  struggle  for  union  had  wrought  in  the 
people,  that  it  was  not  until  very  late  in  this  struggle 
that  Virginia,  the   most   omnivorous  western   claimant, 
proposed   to  have   the  Articles   go  into   effect  without 
Maryland,  and  still  more  creditable  that  her  proposal 
hardly  received   notice  from   the   other   States.      They 


82  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

were  already  conscious   that   the   thirteen   were   really 
one. 

91.  The  solution  of  the  difficulty  was  found  in  1780. 
The  western  boundary  of  the  State  of  New  York  had 

New  York's  always  been  very  much  in  the  air.  Her  main 
claim.  claim  to  her  present  extensive  territory  lay  in 
the  assertions  that  the  western  part  had  once  belonged  to 
the  Six^N%t^as  of  Indians,  and  that  the  Dutch  conquer 
ing  the  Six  JN  ations,  the  English  conquering  the  Dutch, 
and^ew  York  conquering  the  English,  had  succeeded 
to  these  rights.  But  the  Six  Nations  had  exercised  an 
undefined  suzerainty  over  all  the  Indian  tribes  from 
Tennessee  to  Michilimackinac,  covering  all  the  territory 
in  dispute.  New  York  proposed,  if  Congress  would 
confirm  her  present  western  boundary,  to  transfer  to 
Congress  her  ^estern  claims  by  conquest,  superior  to  any 
mere  charter  claims  ;  and  Congress  approved  the  offer  as 
"  expressly  calculated  to  accelerate  the  federal  alliance." 
On  March  1,  1781,  the  New  York  delegates  formally 
completed  the  deed  of  transfer  to  the  United  States ;  on 
the  same  day  the  Maryland  delegates  signed  the  Arti 
cles  ;  and  by  this  action  of  the  last  State  the  Articles  of 
Confederation  came  into  force  as  the  first  attempt  to 
frame  a  national  government. 

92.  The  long  struggle  had  given  time  for  careful  con 
sideration  of  the  Articles.     Maryland's  persistent  criti 
cism  had  prepared  men  to  find  defects  in  them.     Con 
ventions  of  New  England  States,  pamphlets,  and  private 
correspondence    had   found   flaws   in   the   new  plan   of 
government ;    but  a  public   trial   of   it  was  a  necessary 
preliminary   to   getting   rid  of  it.     The   efforts   of  the 
individual  States  to  maintain  the  war,  the   disposition 
of  each  State  to  magnify  its  own  share  in  the  result, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     83 

the  popular  jealousy  of  a  superior  power,  transferred 
now  from  parliament  to  the  central  government,  and 
inflamed  by  the  politicians  who  saw  their  quickest  road 
to  dignity  in  the  State  governments,  were  enough  to 
ensure  the  Articles  some  lease  of  life.  A  real  national 
government  had  to  be  extorted  through  the  "grinding 
necessities  of  a  reluctant  people." 

93.  Congress  and  its  committees  had  already  begun  to 
declare  that  it  was  impossible  to  carry  on  a  government 
efficiently  under  the  Articles.     Its  expostula-  Territorial  ces- 
tions  were  to  be  continued  for  several  years        sions- 
before  they  were  heard.     In  the  meantime  it  did  not 
neglect  the  great  subject  which  concerned  the  essence  of 
nationality  —  the  western  territory.     Virginia  had  made 
a  first  offer  to  cede  her  claims,  but  it  was  not  accepted. 
A  committee  of  Congress  now  made  a  report    (1782) 
maintaining  the  validity  of  the  rights  which  New  York 
had   transferred   to    Congress ;    and   in   the   next   year 
Virginia    made    an    acceptable    offer.      Her    deed   was 
accepted   (March  1,  1784)  ;   the  other  claimant   States 
followed ;    and  Congress,  which  was  not  authorized  by 
the  Articles  to   hold  or   govern  territory,   became  the 
sovereign  of  a  tract  of  some  430,000  square  miles,  nearly 
equal  to  the  areas  of  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  com 
bined,  covering  all  the  country  between  the  Atlantic  tier 
of   States   and  the  Mississippi  river,  from  the  British 
possessions  nearly  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

94.  In  this  territory  Congress  had  now  on  its  hands 
the  same  question  of  colonial  government  in  which  the 
British   parliament   had    so   signally    failed.     Territorial 
The  manner  in  which  Congress  dealt  with  it    government. 
has  made  the  United  States  the  country  that  it  is.     The 
leading  feature  of  this  plan  was  the  erection,  as  rapidly 


84  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

as  possible,  of  States,  similar  in  powers  to  the  original 
States.     The  power  of  Congress  over  the  territories  was 
to  be  theoretically  absolute,  but  it  was  to  be  exerted  in 
encouraging  the  development  of   thorough   self-govern 
ment,  and  in  granting  it  as  fast  as  the  settlers  should 
become  capable  of  exercising  it.     Copied  in  succeeding 
Acts  for  the  organization  of  Territories,  and  still  con- 
The  ordinance  trolling  the  spirit  of  such  Acts,  the  Ordinance 
of  1787.      of  1787  (July  13j  1787)  is  the  foundation  of 

almost  everything  which  makes  the  modern  American 
system  peculiar. 

95.  The  preliminary  plan  of  Congress  was  reported  by 
a  committee  (April  23,  1784)  of  which   Jefferson  was 
chairman.     It   provided   for   the   erection  of   seventeen 
States,  north  and  south  of  the   Ohio,  with   some   odd 
names,   such    as    Sylvania,   Assenisipia,    Metropotamia, 
Polypotamia,  and  Pelisipia.     These  States  were  forever 
to  be  a  part  of  the  United  States,  and  to  have  republican 
governments,  and  the  Ordinance  creating  them  was  to  be 
a  compact  between  the   Federal   Government  and  each 
State,  unalterable  unless  by  mutual  consent.     "  After  the 
year  1800  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary 
servitude  in  any  of  the  said  States,  other  than  in  the 
punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted."     This  provision,  which  represented  Jef 
ferson's  feeling  on  the  subject,  was  lost  for  want  of  seven 
States  in  its  favor. 

96.  The  final  plan  of  1787  was  reported  by  a  committee 
of  which  Nathan  Dane,  of  Massachusetts,  was  chairman. 
The  prohibition  of  slavery  was  made  perpetual,  and  a 
fugitive  slave  clause  was  added  (§  124).     The  Ordinance 
covered  only  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio,  and  provided 
for  not  less  than  three  nor  more  than  five  States.     Ohio, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     85 

Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  have  been  the 
resultant  States.  The  inhabitants  were  to  be  secured  in 
the  equal  division  of  real  and  personal  property  of  intes 
tates  to  the  next  of  kin  in  equal  degree.  At  first  Con 
gress  was  to  appoint  the  governor,  secretary,  judges,  and 
militia  generals,  and  the  governor  and  judges  were  to 
make  laws  subject  to  the  veto  of  Congress.  When  the 
population  reached  5000  the  inhabitants  were  to  have  an 
assembly  of  their  own,  to  consist  of  the  governor,  a  legis 
lative  council  of  five,  selected  by  Congress  from  ten 
nominations  by  the  lower  house,  and  a  lower  house  of 
representatives  of  one  delegate  for  every  500  inhabitants. 
This  assembly  was  to  choose  a  delegate  to  sit,  but  not  to 
vote,  in  Congress,  and  was  to  make  laws  not  repugnant  to 
"the  articles  of  fundamental  compact/'  which  were  as 
follows :  the  new  States  or  Territories  were  to  maintain 
freedom  of  worship,  the  benefits  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  trial  by  jury,  proportionate  representation,  bail, 
moderate  fines  and  punishments,  and  the  preservation  of 
liberty,  property,  and  private  contracts ;  they  were  to 
encourage  public  education  and  keep  faith  with  the 
Indians  ;  they  were  to  remain  forever  a  part  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  they  were  not  to  interfere  with  the  disposal 
of  the  soil  by  the  United  States,  or  to  tax  the  lands  of 
the  United  States,  or  to  tax  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States  for  the  use  of  the  Mississippi  or  St.  Lawrence 
rivers.  These  articles  were  to  be  unalterable  unless  by 
mutual  consent  of  a  State  and  the  United  States.  The 
transformation  of  tbe  Territory,  with  its  quite  limited 
government,  into  a  State,  with  all  the  powers  of  an  origi 
nal  State,  was  promised  by  Congress  as  soon  as  the  popu 
lation  skould  reach  60,000. 

97.   Ae  Constitution,  which  was  adopted  almost  imme- 


86  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

diately  afterwards,  provided  merely  that  "  Congress  shall 
have  power  to  dispose  of,  and  make  all  needful  rules  and 
regulations  respecting,  the  territory  or  other  property 
belonging  to  the  United  States,"  and  that  "  new  States 
may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into  the  Union." 
Opinions  have  varied  as  to  the  force  of  the  Ordinance  of 
1787.  The  southern  school  of  writers  have  naturally 
been  inclined  to  consider  it  ultra  vires  and  void ;  and  they 
adduce  the  fact  that  the  new  Congress  under  the  Consti 
tution  thought  it  necessary  to  re-enact  the  Ordinance. 
The  opposite  school  have  inclined  to  hold  the  Ordinance 
as  still  in  force.  Even  as  to  the  territorial  provision  of 
the  Constitution,  opinions  have  varied.  The  Dred  Scott 
decision  held  that  it  applied  only  to  the  territory  then  in 
possession  of  the  United  States,  and  that  territory  subse 
quently  acquired,  by  conquest  or  purchase,  was  not  to  be 
governed  by  Congress  with  absolute  power,  but  subject 
to  constitutional  limitations. 

98.   In  the  interval  of  the  settlement  of  the  territorial 

question,  the  affairs  of  the  "  league  of  friendship  "  known 

as  the  United  States  had  been  going  from  bad  to  worse, 

culminating  in  1786.     The  public  debt  amounted  in  1783 

to   about   $42,000,000,  of  which   $8,000,000  was   owed 

abroad  —  in  Holland,  France,  and  Spain.     Congress  had 

no  power  to  levy  taxes  for  the  payment  of  interest  or 

principal ;  it  could  only  make  requisitions  on  the  States. 

In  the  four  years  ending  in  1786  requisitions  had  been 

Difficulties     ma(^e  ^or  $10,000,000,  and  the  receipts  from 

of  the  confeder-  them  had  amounted  to  but  one-fourth  of  what 

had  been  called  for.     Even  the  interest  on 

the  debt  was  falling  into  arrears,  and  the  first  instalment 

of  the   principal  fell  due   in  1787.     To  pay  this,   and 

subsequent  annual  instalments  of  $1,000, 000,  "was  quite 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     87 

impossible.  Eobert  Morris,  the  financier  of  the  revolu 
tion,  resigned  in  1783,  "rather  than  be  the  minister  of 
injustice,"  hoping  thus  to  force  upon  the  States  the 
necessity  of  granting  taxing  powers  to  Congress.  Wash 
ington,  on  retiring  from  the  command-in-chief,  wrote  a 
circular  letter  to  the  governors  of  all  the  States,  urging 
the  necessity  of  granting  to  Congress  some  power  to 
provide  a  national  revenue.  Congress  (April  18,  1783) 
appealed  to  the  States  for  power  to  levy  specific  duties  on 
certain  enumerated  articles,  and  five  per  cent,  on  others. 
It  was  believed  that  with  these  duties  and  the  requisi 
tions,  which  were  now  to  be  met  by  internal  taxation, 
$2,500,000  per  annum  could  be  raised.  Some  of  the 
States  ratified  the  proposal  j  others  ratified  it  with 
modifications ;  others  rejected  it,  or  changed  their  votes ; 
and  it  never  received  the  necessary  ratification  of  all  the 
States.  The  obedience  to  the  requisitions  grew  more  lax. 
Some  of  the  States  paid  them ;  others  pleaded  poverty, 
and  allowed  more  or  less  of  them  to  run  into  arrears ; 
others  offered  to  pay  in  their  own  depreciated  paper  cur 
rency;  and  others  indignantly  refused  to  pay  in  any 
currency  until  the  delinquent  States  should  pay  all  their 
obligations.  In  1786  a  committee  of  Congress  reported 
that  any  further  reliance  on  requisitions  would  be  "  dis 
honorable  to  the  understandings  of  those  who  entertain 
such  confidence." 

99.   In  the  States  the  case  was  even  worse.     Some  of 
them  had  been  seduced  into  issuing  paper  currency  in 
such  profusion  that  they  were  almost  bank-     Difficulties 
rupt.     Great  Britain,  in  the  treaty  of  peace,  of  the  states- 
had  recognized  the  independence  of  the  individual  States, 
naming  them  in  order ;    and  her  Government  followed 
the  same  system  in  all  its  intercourse  with  its  late  col- 


88  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

onies.  Its  restrictive  system  was  maintained,  and  the 
States,  vying  with  each  other  for  commerce,  could  adopt 
no  system  of  counteracting  measures.  Every  possible 
burden  was  thus  shifted  to  American  commerce;  and 
Congress  could  do  nothing,  for,  though  it  asked  for  the 
power  to  regulate  commerce  for  fifteen  years,  the  States 
refused  it.  The  decisions  of  the  various  State  courts  be 
gan  to  conflict,  and  there  was  no  power  to  reconcile  them 
or  to  prevent  the  consequences  of  the  divergence.  Sev 
eral  States,  towards  the  end  of  this  period,  began  to 
prepare  or  adopt  systems  of  protection  of  domestic  pro 
ductions  or  manufactures,  aimed  at  preventing  competi 
tion  by  neighboring  States.  The  Tennessee  settlers  were 
in  insurrection  against  the  authority  of  North  Carolina ; 
and  the  Kentucky  settlers  were  apparently  disposed  to 
cut  loose  from  Virginia  if  not  from  the  United  States. 
Poverty,  with  the  rigid  execution  of  process  for  debt,  drove 
the  farmers  of  western  Massachusetts  into  an  insurrec 
tion  which  the  State  had  much  difficulty  in  suppressing ; 
and  Congress  was  so  incompetent  to  aid  Massachusetts 
that  it  was  driven  to  the  expedient  of  imagining  an  In 
dian  war  in  that  direction,  in  order  to  transfer  troops 
Difficulties  thither.  Congress  itself  was  in  danger  of  dis- 
Of  congress,  appearance  from  the  scene.  The  necessity 
for  the  votes  of  nine  of  the  thirteen  States  for  the  pas 
sage  of  important  measures  made  the  absence  of  a  State's 
delegation  quite  as  effective  as  a  negative  vote.  In  order 
to  save  the  expense  of  a  delegation,  the  States  began  to 
neglect  the  election  of  them,  unless  they  had  some  object 
to  obtain  by  their  attendance.  It  was  necessary  for  Con 
gress  to  make  repeated  and  urgent  appeals  in  order  to  ob 
tain  a  quorum  for  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  Great  Britain.  In  1784  Congress  even  broke  up  in 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     89 

disgust,  and  the  French  minister  reported  to  his  Govern 
ment,  "  There  is  now  in  America  no  general  govern 
ment  —  neither  Congress  nor  President,  nor  head  of  any 
one  administrative  department."  Everywhere  there  were 
symptoms  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

100.  Congress  was  evidently  incompetent  to  frame  a 
new  plan  of  national  government ;  its  members  were  too 
dependent  on  their  States,  and  would  be  recalled  if  they 
took  part  in  framing  anything  stronger  than  the  Arti 
cles.     The  idea  of  a  convention  of  the  States,  pr0posais  for  a 
independent  of   Congress,  was  in  the  minds    convention. 
and  mouths  of  many ;  Thomas  Paine  had  suggested  it  as 
long  ago  as  his  Common  Sense  pamphlet :  "  Let  a  conti 
nental  conference  be  held,  to  frame  a  continental  charter, 
drawing  the  line  of  business  and  jurisdiction  between 
members  of  Congress  and  members  of  assembly."     To  a 
people  as  fond  of  law  and  the  forms  of  law  as  the  Amer 
icans,  there  was  a  difficulty  in  the  way.     The  Articles 
had  provided  that  no  change   should  be  made  in  them 
but  by  the  assent  of  every  State   legislature.     If  the 
work  of  such  a  convention  was  to  be  subject  to  this  rule, 
its  success  would  be  no  greater  than  that  of  Congress  ;  if 
its  plan  was  to  be  put  into  force  on  the  ratification  of 
less  than  the  whole  number  of  States,  the  step  would  be 
more  or  less  revolutionary.     In  the  end,  the  latter  course 
was  taken,  though  not  until  every  other  expedient  had 
failed ;  but  the  act  of  taking  it  showed  the  underlying 
consciousness  that  union,  independence,  and  nationality 
were  now  inextricably  complicated,  and  that  the  thirteen 
had  become  one  in  some  senses. 

101.  The    country   drifted    into   a  convention    by   a 
roundabout   way.      The  navigation  of  Chesapeake  Bay 
needed  regulation ;  and  the  States  of  Maryland  and  Vir- 


90  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ginia,  having  plenary  power  in  the  matter,  appointed 
delegates  to  arrange  such  rules.  The  delegates  met 
(1785)  at  Washington's  house,  Mount  Vernon ;  and 
Maryland,  in  adopting  their  report,  proposed  a  meeting 
of  commissioners  from  all  the  States  to  frame  commer 
cial  regulations  for  the  whole.  Virginia  acceded  at  once, 
convention  of  an(l  named  Annapolis,  in  Maryland,  as  the 

1786-  place.     The  convention  met  (1786),  but  only 
five   States   vere   represented,   and  their   delegates  ad 
journed,    after    recommending    another    convention    at 
Philadelphia,  in  May,  1787. 

102.  Congress  had  failed  in  its  last  resort  —  a  pro 
posal  that  the  States  should  grant  it  the  impost  power 

Convention  of  alone  j  New  York's  veto  had  put  an  end  to 

1787-  this  last  hope.     Confessing  its  helplessness, 
Congress   approved  the  call  for  a  second   convention; 
twelve  of  the  States  (all  but  Khode  Island)  chose  dele 
gates  ;  and  the  convention  met  at  Philadelphia  (May  14, 
1787),  with  an  abler  body  of  men  than  had  been  seen  in 
Congress    since   the   first    two   Continental   Congresses. 
Among  others,  Virginia  sent  Washington,  Madison,  Ed- 
mun£  Eandolph,   George   Mason,  and   George   Wythe ; 
Pennsylvania,  Franklin,  Kobert   and   Gouverneur   Mor 
ris,   and   James   Wilson ;    Massachusetts,   Eufus   King, 
Gerry,  and  Strong ;    Connecticut,  William  S.  Johnson, 
Sherman,  and  Ellsworth ;  New   York,  Hamilton ;   New 
Jersey,  Paterson;    and  South  Carolina,  the  two  Pinck- 
neys   and  Kutledge.      With  hardly   an    exception    the 
fifty-five   delegates   were    clear-headed,   moderate    men, 
with   positive   views   of  their   own,  and   firm   purpose, 
but  with  a  willingness  to  compromise. 

103.  Washington  was  chosen  to  preside,  and  the  con 
vention  began  the  formation  of  a  new  Constitution,  instead 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.      91 

of  proposing  changes  in  the  old  one.  Two  parties  were 
formed  at  once.  The  Virginia  delegates  offered  The  Virginia 
a  plan,  proposing  a  Congress  of  two  houses,  plan- 
having  power  to  legislate  on  national  subjects,  and  to 
compel  the  States  to  fulfil  their  obligations.  This  is 
often  spoken  of  as  a  "national  plan,"  but  very  improp 
erly.  It  was  a  "large-State"  plan,  proposed  by  those 
States  which  had  or  hoped  for  a  large  population.  It 
meant  to  base  representation  in  both  houses  on  popula 
tion,  so  that  the  large  States  could  control  both  of  them, 
and  it  left  the  appointment  of  the  President  or  other 
executive  and  the  Federal  judges  to  Congress,  —  so  that 
the  whole  administration  of  the  new  government  would 
fall  under  large-State  control.  On  behalf  of  The  New  jersey 
the  "  small  States  "  Paterson  of  New  Jersey  P|an- 
brought  in  another  plan.  It  continued  the  old  Confed 
eration,  with  its  single  house  and  equal  State  vote,  but 
added  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  and  raise  a  reve 
nue,  and  to  compel  the  States  to  obey  requisitions.  The 
State  representation  was  fortunate.  New  Hampshire's 
delegates  did  not  attend  until  after  those  of  New  York 
(then  classed  as  a  small  State)  had  retired  from  the  con 
vention  in  anger  at  its  evident  drift  toward  the  "  large- 
State"  plan.  The  large  States  had  a  general  majority  of 
six  to  five,  but  the  constant  dropping  off  of  one  or  more 
votes,  on  minor  features,  from  their  side  to  that  of  the 
small  States  prevented  the  hasty  adoption  of  any  radical 
measures.  Nevertheless,  the  final  collision  could  not  be 
evaded ;  the  basis  of  the  two  plans  was  in  the  question  of 
one  or  two  houses,  of  equal  or  proportionate  State  votes, 
of  large-State  supremacy  or  of  State  equality.  In  July 
the  large  States  began  to  show  a  disposition  to  force  their 


92  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

plan  through,  and  the   small  States   began  to  threaten 
a  concerted  withdrawal  from  the  convention. 

104.  The  Connecticut  delegates,  from  their  first  appear 
ance  in  the  convention,  had  favored  a  compromise.     They 

The  compro-  had  been  trained  under  the  New  England  sys- 
mise-  tern,  in  which  the  assemblies  were  made  up 
of  two  houses,  one  representing  the  people  of  the  whole 
State,  according  to  population,  and  the  other  giving  an 
equal  representation  to  the  towns.  They  proposed  that 
the  new  Congress  should  be  made  up  of  two  houses,  one 
representing  the  States  in  proportion  to  their  population, 
the  other  giving  an  equal  vote  to  each  State.  At  a  dead 
lock,  the  convention  referred  the  proposition  to  a  com 
mittee,  and  it  reported  in  favor  of  the  Connecticut 
compromise.  Connecticut  had  been  voting  in  the  large- 
State  list,  and  the  votes  of  her  delegates  could  not  be 
spared  from  their  slender  majority ;  now  another  of  the 
large  States,  North  Carolina,  came  over  to  Connecticut's 
proposal,  and  it  was  adopted.  Thus  the  first  great  strug 
gle  of  the  convention  resulted  in  a  compromise,  which 
took  shape  in  the  peculiar  feature  of  the  Constitution, 
the  senate. 

105.  The  little  States  were  still  anxious,  in  every  new 
question,  to  throw  as  much  power  as  possible  into  the 
hands  of  their  special  representative,  the   senate ;   and 

The  work  of  the  that  body  thus  obtained  its  power  to  act  as 
convention.  an  executive  council  as  a  restraint  on  the  Pres 
ident  in  appointments  and  treaties.  This  was  the  only 
survival  of  the  first  alignment  of  parties ;  but  new  divis 
ions  arose  on  almost  every  proposal  introduced.  The 
election  of  the  President  was  given  at  various  times  to 
Congress  and  to  electors  chosen  by  the  State  legislatures ; 
and  the  final  mode  of  choice,  by  electors  chosen  by  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.      93 

States,  was  settled  only  two  weeks  before  the  end  of  the 
convention,  the  office  of  Vice-President  coming  in  with 
it.  The  opponents  and  supporters  of  the  slave  trade 
compromised  by  agreeing  not  to  prohibit  it  for  twenty 
years.  Another  compromise  included  three-fifths  of  the 
slaves  in  enumerating  population  for  representation. 
This  was  the  provision  which  gave  the  slave-holders 
abnormal  power  as  the  number  of  slaves  increased ;  for 
a  district  in  the  "  black  belt "  of  the  south,  while  three- 
fifths  of  its  slaves  were  enumerated,  really  gave  repre 
sentation  to  its  few  whites  only. 

106.  Any  explanation  of  the  system  introduced  by  the 
Constitution  must  start  with  the  historical  fact  that  while 
the  national  Government  was  practically  suspended,  from 
1776  until  1789,  the  only  power  to  which  political  privi 
leges  had  been  given  by  the  people  was  the  States,  and 
that  the  State  legislatures  were,  when  the  convention 
met,  politically  omnipotent,  with  the  exception  of  the 
few  limitations  imposed  on  them  by  the  early  State  con 
stitutions,  which  were  not  at  all  so  searching  or  severe 
as  those  of  more  recent  years.  The  general  rule,  then, 
is  that  the  Federal  Government  has  only  the  powers 
granted  to  it  by  the  Federal  Constitution,  while  the  State 
has  all  governmental  powers  not  forbidden  to  it  by  the 
State  or  the  Federal  Constitution.  But  the  phrase  defin 
ing  the  Federal  Government's  powers  is  no  longer  "ex 
pressly  granted,"  as  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  but 
merely  "granted,"  so  that  powers  necessary  to  the  exe 
cution  of  granted  powers  belong  to  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  even  though  not  directly  named  in  the  Constitution. 
This  question  of  the  interpretation,  or  "  construction,"  of 
the  Constitution  is  at  the  bottom  of  real  national  politics 
in  the  United  States  :  the  minimizing  parties  have  sought 


94  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

|| 

to  hold  the  Federal  Government  to  a  strict  construction 
of  granted  powers,  while  their  opponents  have  sought  to 
widen  those  powers  by  a  broad  construction  of  them. 
The  strict-construction  parties,  when  they  have  come 
into  power,  have  regularly  adopted  the  practice  of  their 
opponents,  so  that  construction  has  pretty  steadily  broad 
ened;  the  power  to  "regulate  commerce  between  the 
States  "  is  now  interpreted  so  as  to  include  the  power  of 
Congress  to  regulate  the  fares  and  contracts  of  railways 
engaged  in  inter-State  commerce  (§  327),  which  would 
have  been  deemed  preposterous  in  1787. 

107.  Popular  sovereignty,  then,  is  the  oasis  of  the 
American  system.  But  it  does  not,  as  does  the  English 
system,  choose  its  legislative  body  and  leave  unlimited 
powers  to  it.  It  makes  its  "  Constitution  "  the  permanent 
TheConstitu-  medium  of  its  orders  or  prohibitions  to  all 
tion.  branches  of  the  Federal  Government  and  to 
many  branches  of  the  State  Governments  :  they  must  do 
what  the  Constitution  directs  and  leave  undone  what  it 
forbids.  The  people,  therefore,  are  continually  laying 
their  commands  on  their  Governments  ;  and  they  have 
instituted  a  system  of  Federal  courts  to  ensure  obedience 
to  their  commands.  An  English  court  must  obey  the 
Act  of  parliament ;  the  American  court  is  bound  and 
sworn  to  obey  the  Constitution  first  and  the  Act  of  Con 
gress  or  of  the  State  legislature  only  so  far  as  it  is 
warranted  by  the  Constitution.  But  the  American  court 
does  not  deal  directly  with  the  Act  in  question ;  it  deals 
with  individuals  who  have  a  suit  before  it.  One  of  these 
individuals  relies  on  an  Act  of  Congress  or  of  a  State 
legislature ;  the  Act  thus  comes  before  the  court  for  ex 
amination  ;  and  it  supports  the  Act  or  disregards  it  as 
"unconstitutional,"  or  in  violation  of  the  Constitution. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     95 

If  the  court  is  one  of  high  rank  or  reputation,  or  one  to 
which  a  decision  may  be  appealed,  as  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  other  courts  follow  the  precedent,  and 
the  law  falls  to  the  ground.  The  court  does  not  come 
into  direct  conflict  with  the  legislative  body  ;  and,  where 
a  decision  woull  be  apt  to  produce  such  a  conflict,  the 
practice  has  been  for  the  court  to  regard  the  matter  as  a 
"  political  question  "  and  refuse  to  consider  it. 

108.  The  preamble  states  that  "  we,  the  people  of  the 
United  States,"  establish  and  ordain  the  Constitution. 
Events  have   shown  that  it  was  the  people 

of  the  whole  United  States  that  established 
the  Constitution,  but  the  people  of  1787  seem  to  have 
inclined  to  the  belief  that  it  was  the  people  of  each 
State  for  itself.  This  belief  was  never  changed  in  the 
south ;  and  in  1861  the  people  of  that  section  believed 
that  the  ordinances  of  secession  were  merely  a  repeal  of 
the  enacting  clause  by  the  power  which  had  passed  it, 
the  people  of  the  State. 

109.  The  original  Constitution  was  in  seven  articles. 
The   first   related  to  the    organization  and  powers   of 
Congress,   which    consists   of   a   senate   and    The  house  of 
house    of    representatives.     Eepresentatives  representatives. 
are  to  be  inhabitants  of  the  State  for  which  they  are 
chosen,  to  be  twenty-five  years  old  at  least,  and  are  to 
serve  two  years.     Each  house  of  representatives  thus 
lasts  for  two  years,  and  this  period  is  usually  known  as 
"  a  Congress  "  ;  the  fiftieth  Congress  expired  March  4, 
1889,  having  completed  the  first  century  of  the  Con 
stitution.     Kepresentatives  are  assigned  to  the  States  in 
proportion  to  population,  and  this  fact  forced  the  pro 
vision  for   a  decennial  census,  the  first   appearance  of 
such  a  provision  in  modern  national  history.     The  first 


96  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

census  was  taken  in  1790.  Apportionment  of  repre 
sentatives  from  1883  to  1893  is  governed  by  the  census 
of  1880 ;  by  Act  of  Congress  the  number  154,325  is  the 
divisor  into  a  State's  population  which  fixes  the  number 
of  the  State's  representatives,  the  whole  number  of 
representatives  being  325,1  with  eight  delegates  from  the 
Territories,  having  seats  and  the  right  to  debate,  but  not 
to  vote.  The  house  elects  its  speaker  and  other  officers, 
and  has  the  power  of  impeachment. 

110.  The  legislature  of  each  State  elects  two  senators, 
to  serve  for  six  years ;  and  no  State  can  ever  be 
deprived  of  its  equal  share  of  representation 
except  by  its  own  consent.  The  senators  are 
divided  into  three  classes,  the  term  of  one  class  expiring 
every  two  years.  Six  years  are  therefore  necessary  to 
completely  change  the  composition  of  the  senate,  and  it 
is  considered  a  continuous  body.  Senators  are  to  be  at 
least  thirty  years  old,  and  must  be  inhabitants  of  the 
States  from  which  they  are  chosen  and  citizens  of  the 
United  States  for  at  least  nine  years  previous  to  their 
election.  The  Vice-President  presides  over  the  senate, 
having  no  vote  unless  in  case  of  an  equal  division.  But 
the  legislative  provision  (continuing  until  1887)  that  the 
death  or  disability  of  the  President  and  Vice-President 
devolved  the  office  of  President  on  the  presiding  officer 
pro  tempore  of  the  senate  made  that  officer  one  of  great 
possible  importance,  and  the  Vice-President  regularly 
retired  just  before  the  end  of  a  session,  so  that  a  pro 
tempore  officer  might  be  selected  (§  117). 

1  The  admission  of  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota,  Montana,  and 
Washington  (see  note,  page  58) ,  will  increase  the  number  of  represen 
tatives  to  330,  with  one  delegate  from  each  of  the  four  remaining  Terri 
tories,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  and  Idaho. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     97 

111.  All  officers  of  the  United  States  are  open  to  im 
peachment  by  the  house  of  representatives,  the  impeach 
ment  to    be   tried  by  the   senate,   and   the 

.'••«.         Impeachment. 

penalty  to  be  no  more  than  removal  and  dis 
qualification  to  serve  further  under  the  United  States. 
When  the  President   is   tried,  the  chief-justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  presides. 

112.  The  members  of  both  houses  are  privileged  from 
arrest   and  from   being  questioned  elsewhere  for  words 
spoken  in  debate.     Each  house  passes  on  the 

election  of  its  own  members ;  but  an  Act  of 
Congress  may  control  the  Acts  of  the  State  legislature 
as  to  time,  place,  and  manner  of  elections,  except  as  to 
the  place  of  choosing  senators,  in  which  the  legislature 
remains  supreme.  Congress  has  exercised  the  power  by 
passing  a  general  election  law.  The  two  houses  cannot 
adjourn  to  another  place  or  for  more  than  three  days, 
unless  by  common  consent.  Their  members  are  paid  by 
the  United  States,  and  must  not  be  office-holders  or 
receive  any  office  created  or  increased  in  pay  during  their 
term  of  service  in  Congress. 

113.  When  a  bill  passes  both  houses  it  goes  to  the 
President.     If  he  signs,  it  becomes  a  law.     If  he  holds 
it  without   signing   for  ten   days    (Sundays 
excepted)   it   becomes   law,   unless   the  final 
adjournment   of   Congress  comes  in  the  ten  days.     All 
bills  passed  in  the  last  ten  days  of  a  Congress  are  there 
fore  at  the  mercy  of  the  President ;  he  can  prevent  them 
from  becoming  laws  by  simply  retaining  them.     If  the 
President  decides  to  veto  a  bill  he  returns   it,   with,  a 
statement   of  his   objections,   to  the  house  in  which  it 
originated.     It  can  then  only  become  law  by  the  vote  of 
two-thirds  of  both  houses. 


98  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

114.  The  powers  of  Congress  are  fully  stated.  The 
first  is  to  "  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and 
Powers  of  con-  excises,  [in  order]  to  pay  the  de-^s  and  pro 
gress,  vide  for  the  common  defence  and  general 
welfare  of  the  United  States."  The  words  in  brackets 
are  not  in  the  original,  but  they  are  included  in  con 
struction  by  all  respectable  authorities,  as  essential  to 
its  meaning;  any  other  construction  would  give  Con 
gress  absolute  power  over  whatever  it  thought  to  be 
for  "  the  common  defence  or  general  welfare."  Duties, 
etc.,  are  to  be  uniform  throughout  the  United  States. 
Other  powers  are :  to  borrow  money ;  to  regulate  foreign 
and  domestic  commerce ;  to  make  rules  for  naturaliza 
tion,  and  bankruptcy  laws ;  to  coin  money,  regulate  the 
value  of  foreign  coins,  and  fix  the  standard  of  weights 
and  measures;  to  punish  the  counterfeiting  of  Federal 
securities  and  current  coin ;  to  establish  post-offices  and 
post-roads ;  to  establish  patent  and  copyright  systems ; 
to  establish  courts  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court ;  to 
punish  offences  on  the  high  seas  or  against  international 
law;  to  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and 
reprisal,  and  make  rules  for  captures  ;  to  raise  and  sup 
port  armies,  no  appropriation  to  be  for  more  than  two 
years  ;  to  provide  and  maintain  a  navy  ;  to  make  articles 
of  war ;  to  use  the  militia  of  the  States  in  executing 
Federal  laws,  suppressing  insurrections,  and  repelling 
invasions;  to  provide  for  organizing,  arming,  and  disci 
plining  this  militia,  leaving  the  States  to  appoint  the 
officers,  and  carry  out  the  system;  to  establish  a 
national  capital  or  Federal  district  (the  District  of 
Columbia,  containing  the  city  of  Washington),  and  to 
exercise  exclusive  powers  of  legislation  over  it,  and  over 
sites  for  forts,  dockyards,  etc.,  bought  by  permission  of 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     99 

the  States ;  and,  finally,  "  to  make  all  laws  which  shall 
be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the 
foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by  this 
Constitution  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or 
in  any  department  or  office  thereof."  This  last  power 
has  been  the  subject  of  most  debate.  It  was  urged  that, 
unless  an  Act  of  Congress  was  strictly  "  necessary  "  for 
the  execution  of  one  of  the  granted  powers,  it  was 
invalid.  The  Supreme  Court  has  held  that  the  Act  need 
not  be  "  absolutely  necessary,"  or  even  "  very  necessary," 
—  that  it  is  enough  if  it  is  "  necessary."  As  the 
decision  of  the  necessity  is  with  the  legislative  body,  the 
word  opens  a  wide  sweep  for  construction;  but  it  has 
always  furnished  a  barricade  which  the  opponents  of  a 
bill  have  often  found  very  strong. 

115.  The  real  sovereignty  which  made  the  Constitu 
tion  shows  itself  in  a  double  series  of  prohibitions  —  on 
the  Federal  Government  and  on  the  States. 

Powers  forbidden 

The  Federal  Government  shall  not  suspend  to  the  Federal 
the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ex 
cept  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  when  the  public 
safety  requires  it.  Since  the  Civil  War  the  Supreme 
Court  has  decided  that  the  writ  itself  can  never  be  sus 
pended  while  the  courts  are  open,  that  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  may  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  as  to  classes 
of  persons  directly  interested  in  the  war,  but  that  the 
writ  is  still  to  issue  and  the  court  to  decide  whether  the 
applicant  comes  within  the  excepted  classes  or  not.  Con 
gress  must  not  pass  any  bill  of  attainder  or  ex  post  facto 
law,  tax  exports,  give  commercial  preference  to  the  ports 
of  one  State  over  those  of  another,  lay  direct  taxes  except 
in  proportion  to  census  population,  or  grant  any  title  of 
nobility.  Money  is  to  be  taken  from  the  treasury  only 


100  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

in  consequence  of  appropriations  made  by  law.  And  no 
person  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  may  accept 
any  gift  or  title  from  a  foreign  power  without  consent  of 
Congress. 

116.  The  States  are  absolutely  forbidden  to  make  trea 
ties  of  any  kind,  to  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal, 
Powers  forbidden  to  coin  money,  to  emit  bills  of  credit,  to  make 

to  the  states,  anything  but  silver  a  legal  tender,  to  grant 
any  title  of  nobility,  to  pass  any  bill  of  attainder,  ex  post 
facto  law,  or  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts. 
It  follows  from  the  last  clause  that  States  cannot  pass 
bankruptcy  laws.  The  States  are  forbidden,  except  by 
consent  of  Congress,  to  lay  any  duties  on  imports  or  ex 
ports,  except  inspection  charges,  to  be  paid  into  the  Fed 
eral  treasury ;  to  lay  any  tonnage  duties ;  to  keep  troops 
(a  word  which  does  not  cover  militia)  or  ships  in  peace ; 
to  make  any  agreement  with  another  State  or  with  a  for 
eign  power  j  or  to  engage  in  war  unless  actually  invaded. 

117.  The  President  is  to  be  a  native  citizen,  at  least 
thirty-five  years  old,  and  at  least  fourteen  years  a  resi- 

The  President  dent  within  the  United  States.  He  is  paid  by 
and  his  powers,  faQ  United  States ;  and  his  salary  is  not  to 
be  increased  or  diminished  by  Congress  during  his  term : 
the  Act  must  apply  to  the  successors  of  the  President 
who  signs  the  Act.  He  is  sworn  to  execute  his  office 
faithfully,  and  to  "  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States."  In  case  of  his  death, 
resignation,  or  inability  (by  impeachment  or  otherwise) 
the  Vice-President  succeeds  him ;  and,  in  case  of  the  ina 
bility  of  both,  the  members  of  the  cabinet  succeed  in  a 
prescribed  order,  according  to  the  Presidential  Succession 
Act  of  1886.  The  President  has  the  veto  power  already 
described,  sends  messages  to  Congress  on  the  state  of  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     101 

Union  or  on  special  subjects,  convenes  either  house  or 
both  on  extraordinary  occasions,  receives  foreign  envoys, 
commissions  officers  of  the  United  States,  and  oversees 
the  execution  of  the  laws  passed  by  Congress.  He 
makes  treaties ;  but  no  treaty  is  valid  unless  passed  by 
the  senate  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  those  present.  He  ap 
points  ministers  and  consuls,  judges,  and  all  other  officers 
whose  appointment  Congress  had  not  vested  in  other 
officers  ;  but  presidential  appointments  must  be  confirmed 
by  the  senate,  though  the  President  may  make  temporary 
appointments  during  the  recess  of  the  senate,  to  hold 
until  the  end  of  their  next  session.  He  is  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  has  power  of  pardon  or 
reprieve  for  offences  against  Federal  laws,  except  in  case 
of  impeachment.  And  he  may  call  upon  heads  of  depart 
ments  for  an  opinion  in  writing  on  any  subject  relating 
to  his  department. 

118.  The  last   clause  has   evolved  the   "cabinet,"   a 
term  not   known  in  the  Constitution.     When  Congress 
has  by  law  organized  a  department,  its  lead 
ing  officer  is  called  its  secretary.     There  are 

now  (1887)  seven  departments  —  those  of  state,  of  the 
treasury,  of  war,  of  the  navy,  of  the  post-office,  of  the 
interior,  and  of  justice ;  and  departments  of  agriculture 
and  of  labor  have  been  proposed.1  The  secretaries  are 
selected  by  the  President  and  are  confirmed  by  the  sen 
ate,  but  are  not  responsible  to  any  one  but  the  President. 
Nor  is  he  bound  by  their  individual  opinions,  or  even  by 
a  unanimous  opinion  from  one  of  their  periodical  meet 
ings.  They  are  his  advisers  only. 

119.  The  people  have  no  direct  voice  in  the  choice  of 
President  and  Vice-President :  they  choose  electors,  each 

1  A  department  of  agriculture  was  organized  in  February,  1889, 


102  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

State  having  as  many  electors  as  it  has  senators  and 
representatives  together;  and  the  electors  choose  the 
President  and  Vice-President,  meeting  at  their  State  capi- 
The  electoral  tals  for  that  purpose,  and  sending  separate 
system.  certificates  of  their  choice  of  President  and  of 
Vice-President  to  the  presiding  officer  of  the  senate  at 
Washington.  The  electors  are  to  be  chosen  in  such 
manner  as  the  legislature  of  each  State  shall  direct ;  and 
this  plenary  power  of  the  legislatures  was  the  source  of 
the  unhappy  disputed  election  of  1876-77.  By  Acts  of 
Congress,  the'  electors  are  to  be  chosen  on  the  Tuesday 
after  the  first  Monday  of  November ;  they  meet  in  their 
States  and  vote  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  December ; 
and  Congress  meets  on  the  second  Wednesday  of  Febru 
ary  to  witness  the  counting  of  the  electoral  votes.  The 
electors  are  legally  State  officers ;  and  the  action  of  their 
States  in  regard  to  them  was  evidently  intended  to  be 
final.  Until  1887  Congress  refused  to  provide  for  nec 
essary  proof  of  the  State's  action,  and  claimed  the  power 
to  provide  from  time  to  time  for  emergencies.  Such 
emergencies  were  constantly  occurring ;  and  Congress, 
which  was  meant  to  be  merely  a  witness  of  the  count  by 
the  presiding  officer  of  the  senate,  had  seized,  before  1876, 
a  general  supervisory  power  over  the  electors  and  their 
votes.  This  illegitimate  function  of  Congress  broke  down 
in  1876-77,  for  several  Southern  States  sent  different  sets 
of  certificates  ;  the  two  houses  of  Congress  were  con 
trolled  by  opposite  parties,  and  could  agree  on  nothing ; 
and  an  extra-constitutional  machine,  the  "  electoral  com 
mission,"  was  improvised  to  tide  over  the  difficulty. 
Now  provision  is  made  by  the  Electoral  Count  Act  of 
1887,  for  the  State's  certification  of  its  votes  ;  and  the 
certificate  which  comes  in  legal  form  is  not  to  be  rejected 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     103 

but  by  a  vote  of  both  houses.  If  there  is  no  majority 
of  electoral  votes  for  any  person  for  Vice-President,  the 
senate,  by  a  majority  of  its  members,  chooses  from  the 
two  names  highest  on  the  list.  If  there  is  no  majority 
for  President,  the  house  of  representatives  chooses  one 
from  the  three  names  highest  on  the  list,  each  State 
having  one  vote. 

120.  The  electors  were  meant  to  exercise  a  perfect 
freedom  of  choice,  and  there  are  instances  in  early  years 
of  electors  voting  for  personal  friends  of  the  powers  of  the 
opposite  party.  It  was  originally  provided  electors. 
that  each  elector  was  to  name  two  persons,  without 
specifying  which  was  to  be  President  or  Vice-President. 
When  the  votes  were  counted,  the  highest  name  on  the 
list,  if  it  had  a  majority  of  all  the  votes,  obtained  the 
presidency,  and  the  next  highest  became  Vice-President. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  convention  cut  out  the  office  of 
President  according  to  the  measure  of  George  Washing 
ton,  and  there  was  no  difficulty  while  he  served :  each 
elector  cast  one  of  his  votes  for  Washington,  and  he  was 
chosen  unanimously ;  the  struggle  was  for  the  second 
office.  When  he  went  out  of  office  in  1796  the  parties 
began  to  name  candidates  in  advance  for  the  two  offices ; 
the  electors  began  to  feel  bound  to  vote  for  their  party 
candidates;  and  the  individuality  of  the  electors  dis 
appeared  at  once.  In  the  election  of  1800  the  electors 
of  the  successful  party  voted  together  like  a  well-drilled 
army,  and  the  result  was  that  the  two  candidates  of  the 
successful  party  had  an  equal  vote.  The  defeated  party 
controlled  the  house  of  representatives,  and  their  efforts  to 
choose  Burr  President  instead  of  Jefferson  ex-  The  ]2th 
asperated  the  Democrats  and  sealed  the  fate  amendment. 
of  the  old  system.  An  amendment  to  the  Constitution 


104  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

was  adopted  in  1804,  changing  the  method  of  the  electors 
in  voting,  so  that  each  should  vote  separately  for  the 
two  offices  and  thus  prevent  any  tie  vote  from  this  cause. 

121.    The  Constitution  provides  for  one  Supreme  Court, 
having   original   jurisdiction  in  cases  affecting   foreign 

The  Federal  ministers  and  consuls,  and  those  to  which  a 
courts-  State  shall  be  a  party,  and  appellate  jurisdic 
tion  from  such  subordinate  courts  as  Congress  should 
from  time  to  time  establish.  All  judges  were  to  hold 
office  during  good  behavior  (§  237),  and  their  salaries 
were  not  to  be  diminished  during  their  continuance  in 
office.  Criminal  trials  were  to  be  by  jury,  except  in 
impeachments,  and  were  to  be  held  within  the  State  in 
which  the  offence  had  been  committed,  or  in  places 
assigned  by  law  for  the  trial  of  offences  committed  out 
side  the  jurisdiction  of  any  State.  The  whole  jurisdic 
tion  of  Federal  courts,  covering  both  the  original  and  the 
appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  clearly 
stated.  Federal  courts  were  to  deal  with  all  cases  in  /- 
law  or  equity  arising  under  the  Constitution  or  the  laws 
or  treaties  made  under  it ;  with  all  cases  affecting  public  \ 
ministers  and  consuls,  or  admiralty  or  maritime  law; 
with  suits  by  or  against  the  United  States ;  and  with^ 
suits  by  one  State  against  another,  by  a  State  against  i 
citizens  of  another  State,  by  a  citizen  of  one  State  against 
a  citizen  of  another,  by  a  citizen  of  a  State  against  citi 
zens  of  his  own  State  when  the  question  was  one  of  a 
grant  of  land  from  different  States,  by  a  State  or  its 
citizens  against  foreigners,  or  by  a  foreigner  against  an  V 
American.  As  the  section  first  stood,  it  was  open  to 
the  construction  of  giving  the  power  to  the  citizen  of 
one  State  to  sue  another  State,  and  the  Supreme  Court 
so  construed  it  in  1793-94.  The  States  at  once  took  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT.     105 

alarm ;  and  the  llth  amendment,  forbidding  suit  against 
a  State  under  this  section  except  by  another  State,  was 
ratified  in  1798. 

122.  As  soon  as  the  new  Government  was  organized 
in  1789,  a  Judiciary  Act  was  passed,  organizing  the  whole 
system   of  inferior   Federal   courts.      Subse-  organization  of 
quent  development  has  not  changed  the  essen-  the  judiciary. 
tial  nature  of  this  first  Act.     The  Supreme  Court  now 
consists  of  a  chief-justice  and  eight   associate  justices ; 
there  are  nine  circuit  courts,  each  consisting  of  a  Supreme 
Court  justice  and  a  circuit  judge ;  and  fifty-six  district 
courts,  each  with  a  district  judge.      Each  circuit  com 
prises  several  States ;  and  the  Supreme  Court  justices,  in 
addition  to  their  circuit  work,  meet  in  bank  annually  at 
Washington.     The  districts  cover  each  a  State  or  a  part 
of  a  State.     Appeal  lies  from  the  district  to  the  circuit 
court  when  the  matter  involved  is  of  a  value  greater  than 
$500,  and  from  the  circuit  to  the  Supreme  Court  when 
$5000  or  more  is  involved.     There  are  also  Territorial 
courts ;  but  these  are  under  the  absolute  power  of  Con 
gress  over  the  Territories,  and  are  not  covered  by  the 
constitutional  provisions  as  to  courts.     Consular  courts, 
held  abroad,  fall  under  the  treaty  power. 

123.  The  Constitution's  leading   difference   from  the 
Confederation  is  that  it  gives  the  national  Government 
power  over  individuals.     The  Federal  courts  (ts  power  over 
are  the  principal  agent  in  securing  this  essen-    '"dividuais. 
tial  power ;  without  them,  the  Constitution  might  easily 
have  been  as  dismal  a  failure  as  the  Confederation.     It 
has  also  been  a  most  important  agent  in  securing  to  the 
national   Government   its    supremacy   over   the   States. 
From  this  point  of  view  the  most  important  provision  of 
the  Constitution  is  the  grant  of  jurisdiction  to  Federal 


106  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

courts  in  cases  involving  the  construction  of  the  Consti 
tution  or  of  laws  or  treaties  made  under  it.  The  25th 
section  of  the  Judiciary  Act  permitted  any  Supreme 
Court  justice  to  grant  a  writ  of  error  to  a  State  court  in 
a  case  in  which  the  constitutionality  of  a  Federal  law  or 
treaty  had  been  denied,  or  in  which  a  State  law  objected 
to  as  in  violation  of  the  Federal  Constitution  had  been 
maintained.  In  such  cases,  the  defeated  party  had  the 
right  to  carry  the  "Federal  question"  to  the  Federal 
courts.  It  was  not  until  1816  that  the  Federal  courts 
undertook  to  exercise  this  power ;  it  raised  a  storm  of 
opposition,  but  it  was  maintained,  and  has  made  the  Con 
stitution  what  it  professed  to  be  —  "  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land."  As  a  subsidiary  feature  in  the 
judiciary  system,  treason  was  restricted  to  the 
act  of  levying  war  against  the  United  States,  or  of  adher 
ing  to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid  and  comfort ;  the 
evidence  of  it  to  confession  in  open  court,  or  to  the  testi 
mony  of  two  witnesses  to  an  overt  act ;  and  any  forfeiture 
in  the  punishment  to  a  life  effect  only.  The  States, 
however,  have  always  asserted  their  power  to  punish  for 
treason  against  them  individually.  It  has  never  been 
fully  maintained  in  practice ;  but  the  theory  had  its 
effect  in  the  secession  period. 

124.  The  States  were  bound  to  give  credit  to  the  pub 
lic  records  of  other  States,  to  accord  citizenship  to  the 

Fugitive  crimi-  citizens  of  other  States,  to  return  criminals 
naisand  slaves,  fleeing  from  other  States,  and  to  return  "per 
sons  held  to  service  or  labor "  under  the  laws  of  another 
State.  This  last  was  the  "  fugitive  slave  "  provision 
of  the  Constitution,  which  became  so  important  after 
1850  (§  228). 

125.  The   Federal   Government   was   to   guarantee   a 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL    GOVERNMENT.     107 

republican  form  of  government  to  each  of  the  States,  and 
to  protect  each  of  them  against  invasion,  or,  Guarantee 
on  application  of  the  legislature  or  governor,  clause. 
against  domestic  violence.  The  "guarantee  clause"  really 
substituted  State  rights  under  the  guarantee  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government  for  the  notion  of  State  sovereignty 
under  the  guarantee  of  the  State  itself.  A  still  stronger 
case  of  this  was  in  the  5th  article  of  the  Constitution, 
stating  the  manner  of  amendment.  The  convention  of 
1787,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  was  working  under  a  sys 
tem  of  government  which  provided  expressly  that  it  was 
not  to  be  altered  in  the  least  unless  by  consent  of  all  the 
States.  The  Constitution  provided  that  it  was  to  go  into 
force,  so  far  as  the  ratifying  States  were  concerned,  as 
soon  as  nine  of  the  thirteen  States  should  ratify  it,  and 
that  any  future  amendment,  when  passed  by  two-thirds 
of  both  houses  and  ratified  by  the  legislatures  or  conven 
tions  of  three-fourths  of  the  States,  should  become  a  part 
of  the  Constitution.  By  application  of  the  legislatures 
of  two-thirds  of  the  States,  a  new  convention,  like  that 
which  framed  the  Constitution,  might  take  the  place  of 
the  two  houses  of  Congress  in  proposing  amendments.  A 
system  under  which  a  State  submits  its  whole  future 
destiny  to  an  unlimited  power  of  decision  in  three- 
fourths  of  its  associate  States  can  hardly  be  called  one 
of  State  sovereignty. 

126.  The  debts  of  the  Confederation,  and  its  engage 
ments,  were  made  binding  on  the  new  Government ; 
the  Constitution,  and  laws  and  treaties  to  be  supreme  law  of 
made  under  it,  were  declared  to  be  "  the  su-  the  land- 
preme  law  of  the  land  "  ;  judges  of  State  courts  were  to 
be  bound  thereby,  "  anything  in  the  Constitution  or  laws 
of  any  State  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding  " ;  all  the 


108  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  officers  of  the  United 
States  and  of  each  and  every  State  were  to  be  bound  by 
oath  or  affirmation  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  ;  but  religious  tests  were  forbidden. 

127.  Ten  amendments  were  adopted  so  soon  after  the 
ratification  of  the  Constitution  that  they  may  fairly  be 

The  first  ten    considered  a  part  of  the  original  instrument. 

amendments.  They  were  due  to  a  general  desire  that  a  "bill 
of  rights  "  of  some  kind  should  be  added  to  it ;  but  they 
did  not  alter  any  of  the  articles  of  the  Constitution. 
They  forbade  any  establishment  of  religion  by  Congress, 
or  any  abridgment  of  freedom  of  worship,  of  the  press, 
or  of  speech,  or  of  the  popular  right  to  assemble  and  peti 
tion  the  Government  for  redress  of  grievances ;  the  bil 
leting  of  soldiers ;  unreasonable  searches  or  seizures,  or 
general  warrants ;  trials  for  infamous  crimes  except 
through  a  grand  jury's  action;  subjecting  a  person  for 
the  same  offence  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  of  life  or 
limb ;  compelling  him  to  witness  against  himself  in  crim 
inal  cases ;  the  taking  of  life,  liberty,  or  property  with 
out  due  process  of  law  or  without  compensation  for  prop 
erty  ;  and  the  demand  of  excessive  bail,  or  the  imposition 
of  excessive  fines  or  of  cruel  or  unusual  punishments. 
They  asserted  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear 
arms,  to  a  jury  trial  from  the  vicinage  in  criminal  cases 
or  in  cases  involving  more  than  twenty  dollars,  to  a  copy 
of  the  indictment,  to  the  testimony  against  the  prisoner, 
to  compulsory  process  on  his  behalf,  and  to  counsel  for 
him.  And  they  stated  expressly  the  general  principle 
already  given,  that  the  Federal  Government  is  restricted 
to  granted  powers,  while  those  not  mentioned  are  reserved 
"  to  the  States  respectively  or  to  the  people." 

128.  The   omission  of  the  word  "thereof"  after  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     109 

clause  last  mentioned  seems  significant.     The  system  of 
the  United  Sta-tes  is  almost  the  only  national 

.  The  sovereignty. 

system,  in  active  and  successful  operation,  as 
to  which  the  exact  location  of  the  sovereignty  is  still  a 
mooted  question.  The  contention  of  the  Calhoun  school 
—  that  the  separate  States  were  sovereign  before  and 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  that  each  State 
adopted  it  by  its  own  power,  maintained  it  by  its  own 
power,  and  could  put  an  end  to  it  by  its  own  power,  that 
the  Union  was  purely  voluntary,  and  that  the  whole  peo 
ple,  or  the  people  of  all  the  other  States,  had  no  right  to 
maintain  or  enforce  the  Union  against  any  State  —  has 
been  ended  by  the  Civil  War.  But  that  did  not  decide 
the  location  of  the  sovereignty.  The  prevalent  opinion 
is  still  that  first  formulated  by  Madison :  that  the  States 
were  sovereign  before  1789 ;  that  they  then  gave  up  a 
part  of  their  sovereignty  to  the  Federal  Government; 
that  the  Union  and  the  Constitution  were  the  work  of  the 
States,  not  of  the  whole  people ;  and  that  reserved  powers 
are  reserved  to  the  people  of  the  States,  not  to  the  whole 
people.  The  use  of  this  bald  phrase  "reserved  to  the 
people,"  not  to  the  people  of  the  several  States,  in  the 
10th  amendment,  seems  to  argue  an  underlying  conscious 
ness,  even  in  1789,  that  the  whole  people  of  the  United 
States  was  already  a  political  power  quite  distinct  from 
the  States,  or  the  people  of  the  States  ;  and  the  tendency 
of  later  opinion  is  in  this  direction.  It  must  be  admitted 
that  the  whole  people  has  never  acted  in  a  single  capac 
ity  ;  but  the  restriction  to  State  lines  seems  to  be  a  self- 
imposed  limitation  by  the  national  people,  which  it  might 
remove,  as  in  1789,  if  an  emergency  should  make  it  nec 
essary.  The  Civil  War  amendments  are  considered  below 
(§§  305-309). 


110  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

129.  By  whatever  sovereignty  the  Constitution  was 
framed  and  imposed,  it  was  meant  only  as  a  scheme  in 

Details  of  the  outline,  to  be  filled  up  afterwards,  and  from 
system.  time  £0  time,  by  legislation.  The  idea  is 
most  plainly  carried  out  in  the  Federal  justiciary :  the 
Constitution  only  directs  that  there  shall  be  a  Supreme 
Court,  and  marks  out  the  general  jurisdiction  of  all  the 
courts,  leaving  Congress,  under  the  restriction  of  the 
President's  veto  power,  to  build  up  the  system  of  courts 
which  shall  best  carry  out  the  design  of  the  Constitution. 
But  the  same  idea  is  visible  in  every  department,  and  it 
has  carried  the  Constitution  safely  through  a  century 
which  has  radically  altered  every  other  civilized  govern 
ment.  It  has  combined  elasticity  with  the  limitations 
necessary  to  make  democratic  government  successful 
over  a  vast  territory,  having  infinitely  diverse  interests, 
and  needing,  more  than  almost  anything  else,  positive 
opportunities  for  sober  second  thought  by  the  people. 
A  sudden  revolution  of  popular  thought  or  feeling  is 
enough  to  change  the  house  of  representatives  from  top 
to  bottom ;  it  must  continue  for  several  years  before  it 
can  make  a  radical  change  in  the  senate,  and  for  years 
longer  before  it  can  carry  this  change  through  the  judi 
ciary,  which  holds  for  life ;  and  all  these  changes  must 
take  place  before  the  full  effects  upon  the  laws  or  Consti 
tution  are  accomplished.  But  the  minor  changes  which 
are  essential  to  an  accommodation  with  the  growth  and 
development  of  a  great  nation  are  reached  in  the  mean 
time  easily  and  naturally  in  the  course  of  legislation,  to 
which  the  skeleton  outline  of  the  Constitution  lends  itself 
kindly.  The  members  of  the  convention  of  1787  showed 
their  wisdom  most  plainly  in  not  trying  to  do  too  much  ; 
if  they  had  done  more  they  would  have  done  far  less. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     Ill 

130.  The  convention  adjourned  17th  September,  1787, 
having  adopted  the  Constitution.    Its  last  step  was  a  res 
olution  that  the  Constitution  be  sent  to  the  submission  to 
Congress  of  the  Confederation,  with  the  rec-     Congress. 
ommendation  that  it  be  submitted  to  conventions  elected 
by  the  people  of  each  State  for  ratification  or  rejection ; 
that,  if   nine  States  should  ratify  it,  Congress  should 
appoint  days  for  the  popular  election  of  electors,  for  the 
choice  of  President  and  Vice-President  by  the  electors, 
and  for  the  meeting  of  senators  and  representatives  to  be 
chosen  under  the  new  plan  of  government ;  and  that  then 
the  new  Congress  and  President  should,  "  without  delay, 
proceed  to  execute  this  Constitution."     Congress,  having 
received  the  report  of  the  convention,  resolved  that  it  be 
sent  to  the  several  legislatures,  to  be  submitted  to  con 
ventions  ;  and  this  was  all  the  approval  the  Constitution 
ever  received  from  Congress.     Both  Congress  and  the 
convention  were  careful  not  to  open  the  dangerous  ques 
tion,  How  was  a  government  which  was  not  to  be  changed 
but  by  the  legislatures  of  all  the  States  to  be  entirely 
supplanted  by  a  different  system  through  the  approval  of 
conventions  in  three-fourths  of  them  ?     They  left  such 
questions  to  be  opened,  if  at  all,  in  the  less  public  forum 
of  the  legislatures. 

131.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  Delaware,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  New  Jersey  had  ratified ;  and  Georgia,  Con 
necticut,  and  Massachusetts  followed  during 

the  first  two  months  of  1788.     Thus  far  the   and  Antifeder- 
only  strong  opposition  had  been  in  Massachu 
setts,  a  "  large  State."     In  it  the  struggle  began  between 
Federalists  and  Antifederalists,  between  the  friends  and 
the  opponents  of  the  Constitution,  with  its  introduction  of 
a  strong  Federal  power ;  and  it  raged  in  the  conventions, 


112  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

legislatures,  newspapers,  and  pamphlets.  The  best  of 
the  last  was  The  Federalist,  written  mainly  by  Hamilton, 
with  the  assistance  of  Madison  and  Jay,  explaining  the 
new  Constitution  and  defending  it.  As  it  was  written 
before  the  Constitution  went  into  force,  it  speaks  much 
for  the  ability  of  its  writers  that  it  has  passed  into  a 
standard  text-book  of  American  constitutional  law. 

132.  The  seventh  and  eighth  States  —  Maryland  and 
South  Carolina  —  ratified  in  April  and  May,  1788 ;  and, 

while  the  conventions  of  Virginia  and  New 

Ratification.      __T      ,  ..._  1.  . 

York  were  still  wrangling  over  the  great  ques 
tion,  the  ninth  State,  New  Hampshire,  ratified,  and  the 
Constitution  passed  out  of  theory  into  fact.  This  left  the 
other  States  in  an  unpleasant  position.  The  Antifeder- 
alists  of  the  Virginia  and  New  York  conventions  offered 
conditional  ratifications  of  all  sorts ;  but  the  Federalists 
stubbornly  refused  to  consider  them,  and  at  last,  by  very 
slender  majorities,  these  two  States  ratified.  North 
Carolina  refused  to  ratify  the  Constitution,  and  Rhode 
Island  refused  even  to  consider  it  (§  145).  Congress 
named  the  first  Wednesday  of  January,  1789,  as  the  day 
for  the  choice  of  electors,  the  first  Wednesday  in  Febru 
ary  for  the  choice  of  President  and  Vice-President,  and 
the  first  Wednesday  in  March  for  the  inaugu 
ration  of  the  new  Government  at  New  York 
city.  The  last  date  fell  on  the  4th  of  March,  which 
has  been  the  limit  of  each  President's  term  since  that 
time. 

133.  When  the  votes  of  the  electors  were  counted  be 
fore  Congress,  it  was  found  that  Washington  had  been 

Fail  of  the     unanimously  elected  President,  and  that  John 
confederation.  Adams,  standing  next  on  the  list,  was  Vice- 
President.     Long  before  the  inauguration  the  Congress 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     113 

of  the  Confederation  had  expired  of  mere  inanition ;  its 
attendance  simply  ran  down  until  (October  21,  1788)  its 
record  ceased,  and  the  United  States  got  on  without  any 
national  Government  for  nearly  six  months.  The  strug 
gle  for  nationality  had  been  successful,  and  the  old  order 
faded  out  of  existence. 

134.  The  first  census  (1790)  followed  so  closely  upon 
the  inauguration  of  the  Constitution  that  the  country 
may  fairly  be  said  to  have  had  a  population  of  nearly  four 
millions  in  1789.  Something  over  half  a  million  of  these 
.were  slaves  of  African  birth  or  blood.  Slavery  of  this 
sort  had  taken  root  in  all  the  colonies,  its  siavery  in  the 
original  establishment  being  everywhere  by  United  states, 
custom,  not  by  law.  When  the  custom  had  been  suffi 
ciently  established  statutes  came  in  to  regulate  a  relation 
already  existing.  Indented  servants  came  only  for  a 
term  of  years,  and  then  were  free.  Slaves  were  not  vol 
untary  immigrants  :  they  had  come  as  chattels,  not  as  per 
sons,  and  had  no  standing  in  law,  and  the  law  fastened 
their  condition  on  their  children.  But  it  is  not  true,  as 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  held  long  afterwards  (§  249), 
that  the  belief  that  slaves  were  chattels  simply,  things 
not  persons,  held  good  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution.  Times  had  changed  somewhat.  The  pecu 
liar  language  of  the  Constitution  itself,  describing  slaves 
as  "  persons  held  to  service  or  labor,  under  the  laws  of 
any  State,"  puts  the  general  feeling  exactly :  they  were 
persons  from  whom  the  laws  of  some  of  the  States  with 
held  personal  rights  for  the  time.  In  accordance  with 
this  feeling  most  of  the  Northern  States  were  on  the  high 
road  towards  abolition  of  slavery.  Vermont  Aboiition  \n  the 
had  never  allowed  it.  In  Massachusetts  it  north- 
was  swept  out  by  a  summary  court  decision  that  it  was 


114  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

irreconcilable  with  the  new  State  constitution.  Other 
States  soon  began  systems  of  gradual  abolition,  which 
finally  extinguished  slavery  north  of  Virginia,  but  so  grad 
ually  that  there  were  still  eighteen  apprentices  for  life  in 
New  Jersey  in  1860,  the  last  remnants  of  the  former  slave 
system.  In  the  new  States  north  of  the  Ohio  slavery  was 
prohibited  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787  (§  96),  and  the  pro 
hibition  was  maintained  in  spite  of  many  attempts  to  get 
rid  of  it  and  introduce  slavery. 

135.  The  sentiment  of  thinking  men  in  the  south  was 
Feeling  in  the  exactly  the  same,  or  in  some  cases  more  bitter 

south.  from  their  personal  entanglement  with  the 
system.  Jefferson's  language  as  to  slavery  is  irrecon 
cilable  with  the  chattel  notion ;  no  abolitionist  agitator 
ever  used  warmer  language  than  he  as  to  the  evils  of 
slavery,  and  the  expression,  "  our  brethren,"  used  by  him 
of  the  slaves,  is  conclusive.  Washington,  Mason,  and 
other  Southern  men  were  as  warm  against  slavery  as 
Jefferson,  and  societies  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  were 
very  common  in  the  south.  No  thinking  man  could  face 
with  equanimity  the  future  problem  of  holding  a  sepa 
rate  race  of  millions  in  slavery.  Like  most  slave  laws, 
the  laws  of  the  Southern  States  were  harsh :  rights  were 
almost  absolutely  withheld  from  the  slave,  and  punish 
ments  of  the  severest  kind  were  legal ;  but  the  execution 
of  the  system  was  milder  than  its  legal  possibilities 
might  lead  one  to  imagine.  The  country  was  as  yet  so 
completely  agricultural,  and  agriculture  felt  so  few  of  the 
effects  of  large  production  and  foreign  commerce,  that 
southern  slavery  kept  all  the  patriarchal  features  possi 
ble  to  such  a  system. 

136.  Indeed,  the  whole  country  was  almost  exclusively 
agricultural,  and,  in  spite  of  every  effort  to  encourage 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOE  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENT.     115 

manufactures  by  State  bounties  and  colonial  protection, 
they  formed  the  meagre st  element  in  the  national  pro 
duction.    Connecticut,  which  now  teems  with    Agriculture 
manufactures,  was  just  beginning  the  produc-  commerce,  and 
tion  of  tinware  and  clocks ;  Ehode  Island  and  man 
Massachusetts  were  just   beginning  to  work   in  cotton 
from  models  of  jennies  and  Arkwright  machinery  sur 
reptitiously  obtained  from  England  after  several  failures 
and  in  evasion  of  penal  Acts  of  parliament ;  and  other 
States,  beyond  local  manufactures  of  paper,  glass,  and 
iron,  were  almost  entirely  agricultural,  or  were  engaged 
in  industries  directly  dependent  on  agriculture.     Com 
merce  was   dependent  on  agriculture   for   exports ;  and 
manufactured  imports  were  enough  to  drown  out  every 
other  form  of  industry. 

137.  There  were  but  four  cities  in  the  United  States 
having  a  population  of  more  than  10,000  —  Philadel 
phia  (42,000),  New  York  (33,000),  Boston  changes  since 
(18,000),  and  Baltimore  (13,000).  The  pop-  I79°- 
ulation  of  the  city  of  New  York  and  its  dependencies  is 
now  more  than  half  as  large  as  that  of  the  whole  United 
States  in  1789 ;  the  State  of  New  York  or  of  Pennsyl 
vania  has  now  more  inhabitants  than  the  United  States 
in  1790 ;  and  the  new  States  of  Ohio  and  Illinois,  which 
had  hardly  any  white  inhabitants  in  1789,  do  not  fall 
far  behind.  Imports  have  swollen  from  $23,000,000  to 
$650,000,000,  exports  from  $20,000,000  to  $700,000,000, 
since  1790.  The  revenues  of  the  new  Government  in  1790 
were  $4,000,000 ;  they  have  now  grown  to  $300,000,000 
or  more.  The  expenditures  of  the  Government,  exclud 
ing  interest  on  the  public  debt,  were  but  $1,000,000  in 
1790,  where  now  they  are  $200,000,000  or  upwards  per  an 
num.  It  is  not  easy  for  the  modern  American  to  realize 


116  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  poverty  and  weakness  of  his  country  at  the  inaugura 
tion  of  the  new  system  of  government,  however  he  may 
realize  the  simplicity  of  the  daily  life  of  its  people. 
Even  the  few  large  cities  were  but  larger  collections  of 
the  wooden  houses,  with  few  comforts,  which  composed 
the  villages;  the  only  advantage  of  their  inhabitants 
over  those  of  the  villages  was  in  the  closer  proximity  to 
their  neighbors  ;  and  but  a  little  over  three  per  cent,  of 
the  population  had  this  advantage,  against  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  in  1880. 

138.   Outside  the  cities  communication  was  slow.    One 

stage  a  week  was  enough  for  the  connection  between  the 

great   cities ;    and  communication  elsewhere 

Communication.    _  _     ,  .  „, 

depended  on  private  conveyance.  Ine  great 
rivers  by  which  the  continent  is  penetrated  in  every 
direction  were  with  difficulty  ascended  by  sailing  vessels 
or  boats ;  and  the  real  measure  of  communication  was 
thus  the  daily  speed  of  a  man  or  a  horse  on  roads  bad 
beyond  present  conception.  The  western  set 
tlements  were  just  beginning  to  make  the 
question  more  serious.  Enterprising  land  companies 
were  the  moving  force  which  had  impelled  the  passage 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787 ;  and  the  first  column  of  their 
settlers  was  pouring  into  Ohio  and  forming  connection 
with  their  predecessors  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
Marietta  and  Cincinnati  (at  first  a  Government  fort, 
and  named  after  the  society  of  the  Cincinnati)  had  been 
founded.  But  the  intending  settlers  were  obliged  to 
make  the  journey  down  the  Ohio  river  from  Pittsburgh 
in  bullet-proof  flat-boats,  for  protection  against  the  Indi 
ans,  and  the  return  trip  depended  on  the  use  of  oars.  For 
more  than  twenty  years  these  flat-boats  were  the  chief 
means  of  river  commerce  in  the  west ;  and,  in  the  longer 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.     117 

trips,  as  to  New  Orleans,  the  boats  were  generally  broken 
up  at  the  end  and  sold  for  lumber,  the  crew  making  the 
trip  home  on  foot  or  on  horseback.  John  Fitch  and 
others  were  already  experimenting  on  what  was  soon  to 
be  the  steamboat  (§  167) ;  but  the  statesman  of  1789, 
looking  at  the  task  of  keeping  under  one  Government  a 
country  of  such  distances,  with  such  difficulties  of  com 
munication,  may  be  pardoned  for  having  felt  anxiety  as 
to  the  future.  To  almost  all  thinking  men  of  the  time 
the  Constitution  was  an  experiment,  and  the  unity  of  the 
new  nation  a  subject  for  very  serious  doubt. 

139.  The  comparative  isolation  of  the  people  every 
where,  the  lack  of  books,  the  poverty  of  the  schools  and 
newspapers,  were  all  influences  which  worked 
strongly  against  any  pronounced  literary  de 
velopment.  Poems,  essays,  and  paintings  were  feeble 
imitations  of  European  models ;  history  was  annalistic, 
if  anything;  and  the  drama  hardly  existed.  In  two 
points  the  Americans  were  strong,  and  had  done  good 
work.  Such  men  as  Jonathan  Edwards  had  excelled  in 
various  departments  of  theology,  and  American  preaching 
had  reached  a  high  degree  of  quality  and  influence ;  and, 
in  the  line  of  politics,  the  American  state-papers  rank 
among  the  very  best  of  their  kind.  Having  a  very  clear 
perception  of  their  political  purposes,  and  having  been 
restricted  in  study  and  reading  to  the  great  masters  of 
pure  and  vigorous  English,  and  particularly  to  the  Eng 
lish  translators  of  the  Bible,  the  American  leaders  came 
to  their  work  with  an  English  style  which  could  hardly 
have  been  improved.  The  writings  of  Franklin,  Wash 
ington,  the  Adamses,  Hamilton,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Jay, 
and  others  show  the  secret  of  their  strength  in  every 
page.  Much  the  same  reasons,  with  the  influences  of 


118  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

democracy,  brought  oratory,  as  represented  by  Patrick 
Henry,  Eisher  Ames,  John  Randolph,  and  others,  to  a 
point  not  very  far  below  the  mark  afterwards  reached  by 
Daniel  Webster.  The  effect  of  these  facts  on  the  subse 
quent  development  of  the  country  is  not  often  estimated 
at  its  full  value.  All  through  an  immigration  of  every 
language  and  dialect  under  heaven  the  English  language 
has  been  protected  in  its  supremacy  by  the  necessity  of 
going  back  to  the  "fathers  of  the  republic"  for  the  first, 
and  often  the  complete,  statement  of  principles  in  every 
great  political  struggle,  social  problem,  or  lawsuit. 

140.    The   cession   of  the  "north-west   territory"  by 
Virginia  and  New  York  had  been  followed  up  by  similar 

Limits  of  set-  cessions  by  Massachusetts  (1785),  Connecticut 
tiement.  (1786),  and  South  Carolina  (1787).  North 
Carolina  did  not  cede  Tennessee  until  late  in  1789,  nor 
Georgia  her  western  claims  until  1802.  Settlement  in 
all  these  regions  was  hardly  advanced  beyond  what  it 
had  been  at  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution.  The  centres 
of  western  settlement,  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  had 
merely  become  more  firmly  established,  and  a  new  one, 
in  Ohio,  had  just  been  begun.  The  whole  western  limits 
of  settlement  of  the  old  thirteen  States  had  moved  much 
nearer  their  present  boundaries ;  and  the  acquisition  of 
the  western  title,  with  the  liberal  policy  of  organization 
and  government  which  had  been  begun,  was  to  have  its 
first  clear  effects  during  the  first  decade  of  the  new  Gov 
ernment.  Almost  the  only  obstacle  to  its  earlier  success 
had  been  the  doubts  as  to  the  attitude  which  the  Spanish 
authorities,  at  New  Orleans  and  Madrid,  would  take 

The  Mississippi  towards    the    new    settlements.      They   had 

river.        already  asserted  a  claim  that  the  Mississippi 

was  an  exclusively  Spanish  stream  from  its  mouth  up  to 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT.      119 

the  Yazoo,  and  that  no  American  boat  should  be  allowed 
to  sail  on  it.  To  the  western  settler  the  Alleghanies  and 
bad  roads  were  enough  to  cut  him  off  from  any  other  way 
to  a  market  than  down  the  Mississippi ;  and  it  was  not 
easy  to  restrain  him  from  a  forcible  defiance  of  the 
Spanish  claim.  The  Northern  States  were  willing  to  al 
low  the  Spanish  claim  in  return  for  a  commercial  treaty ; 
the  Southern  States  and  the  western  settlers  protested 
angrily ;  and  once  more  the  spectre  of  dissolution  appeared, 
not  to  be  laid  again  until  the  new  Government  had  made 
a  treaty  with  Spain  in  1795,  securing  common  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi. 

141.  All  contemporary  authorities  agree  that  a  marked 
change  had  come  over  the  people  since  1775,  and  few  of 
them  seem  to  think  the  change  one  for  the  sociaicondi- 
better.  Many  attribute  it  to  the  looseness  of  tions- 
manners  and  morals  introduced  by  the  French  and  British 
soldiers ;  others  to  the  general  effects  of  war ;  a  few, 
Tories  all,  to  the  demoralizing  effects  of  rebellion.  The 
successful  establishment  of  nationality  would  be  enough 
to  explain  most  of  it ;  and  if  we  remember  that  the  new 
nation  had  secured  its  title  to  a  vast  western  territory,  of 
unknown  but  rich  capacities,  which  it  was  now  moving 
to  reduce  to  possession  by  emigration,  it  would  seem  far 
more  strange  if  the  social  conditions  had  not  been  some 
what  disturbed. 


120  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


VI. 
THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  DEMOCRACY. 

1789-1801. 

142.   ALL  the  tendencies  of  political  institutions  in  the 

United  States  had   certainly  been  towards  democracy ; 

but  it  cannot   be  said  that  the  leading  men 

Democracy 

in  the  United  were  hearty  or  unanimous  in  their  agreement 
tes;  with  this  tendency.  Not  a  few  of  them 
were  pronounced  republicans  even  before  1775,  but  the 
mass  of  them  had  no  great  objection  to  a  monarchical 
form  of  government  until  the  war-spirit  had  converted 
them.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been  di 
rected  rather  against  the  king  than  against  a  king.  Even 
after  popular  sovereignty  had  pronounced  against  a  king, 
claSiS  spirit  was  for  some  time  a  fair  substitute  for  aris 
tocracy.  The  obstacles  to  communication,  which  com 
pelled  the  mass  of  the  people  to  live  a  very  isolated 
existence,  gave  abnormal  prominence  and  influence  to 
those  who,  by  ability  or  wealth,  could  overcome  these 
obstacles ;  and  common  feeling  made  these  a  class,  with 
many  symptoms  of  strong  class  feelings.  As  often 
happens,  democracy  at  least  thought  of  a  Caesar  when 
it  apprehended  class  control.  The  discontented  officers  of 
the  revolutionary  armies  offered  to  make  Washington 
king,  though  he  put  the  offer  by  without  even  consider 
ing  it.  The  suggestion  of  a  return  to  monarchy  in  some 
form,  as  a  possible  road  out  of  the  confusion  of  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  Of1  DEMOCRACY.  121 

Confederation,  occurs  in  the  correspondence  of  some  of 
the  leading  men.  And  while  the  convention  of  1787  was 
holding  its  secret  sessions  a  rumor  went  out  that  it  had 
decided  to  offer  a  crown  to  an  English  prince. 

143.  The    State    constitutions   were    democratic,   ex 
cept  _for  property  or  other  restrictions  on  the  right  of 
suffrage,  or  provisions  carefully  designed  to     Democrac 
keep  the  control  of  at  least  one  house  of  the  m  the  states ; 
State  legislature  "  in  the  hands  of  property."  in  the  Consti- 
The  Federal  Constitution  was  so  drawn  that  it 

would  have  lent  itself  kindly  either  to  class  control  or  to 
democracy.  The  electoral  system  of  choosing  the  Presi 
dent  and  Yice-President  was  altogether  anti-democratic, 
though  democracy  has  conquered  it :  not  an  elector,  since 
1796,  has  disobeyed  the  purely  moral  claim  of  his  party 
to  control  his  choice  (§§  119,  120).  Since  the  senate 
was  to  be  chosen  by  the  State  legislatures,  "  property," 
if  it  could  retain  its  influence  in  those  bodies,  could 
control  at  least  one  house  of  Congress.  The  question 
whether  the  Constitution  was  to  have  a  democratic  or  an 
anti-democratic  interpretation  was  to  be  settled  in  the 
next  twelve  years. 

144.  The    States   were   a  strong   factor   in   the   final 
settlement,  from  the  fact  that  the  Constitution  had  left 
to  them  the  control  of  the  elective  franchise  :  they  were 
to  make  its  conditions  what  each  of  them  saw  fit.     Ee- 
ligious  tests  for  the  right  of  suffrage  had  been  quite 
common   in   the   colonies ;   property  tests   were   almost 
universal.      The   former  disappeared   shortly  after   the 
revolution ;  the  latter  survived  in  some  of  the  States  far 
into  the  constitutional  period.    But  the  desire  |nf|uence  of  im- 
to  attract  immigration  was  always  a  strong  im-     migration. 
pelling  force  to  induce  States,  especially  frontier  States, 


122  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

to  make  the  acquisition  of  full  citizenship  and  political 
rights  as  easy  and  rapid  as  possible.  This  force  was  not 
so  strong  at  first  as  it  was  after  the  great  stream  of 
immigration  began  about  1848  (§  236),  but  it  was  enough 
to  tend  constantly  to  the  development  of  democracy ;  and 
it  could  not  but  react  on  the  national  development.  In 
later  times,  when  State  laws  allow  the  immigrant  to  vote 
even  before  the  period  assigned  by  Federal  laws  allows 
him  to  become  a  naturalized  citizen,  there  have  been 
demands  for  the  modification  of  the  ultra  State  democ 
racy  ;  but  no  such  danger  was  apprehended  in  the  first 
decade. 

145.   The  Antifederalists  had  been  a  political  party, 
but  a  party  with  but  one  principle.     The  absolute  fail 
ure  of  that  principle  deprived  the  party  of  all  cohesion  ; 
and  the  Federalists  controlled  the  first  two 

Organization 

of  the  new  GOV-  Congresses  almost  entirely.  Their  pronounced 
ability  was  shown  in  their  organizing  meas 
ures,  which  still  govern  the  American  system  very  largely. 
The  departments  of  state,  of  the  treasury,  of  war,  of 
justice,  and  of  the  post-office  were  rapidly  and  success 
fully  organized ;  Acts  were  passed  for  the  regulation  of 
seamen,  commerce,  tonnage  duties,  lighthouses,  inter 
course  with  the  Indians,  Territories,  and  the  militia; 
a  national  capital  was  selected;  a  national  bank  was 
chartered ;  the  national  debt  was  funded,  and  the  State 
debts  were  assumed  as  part  of  it.  The  first  four  years  of 
the  new  system  showed  that  the  States  had  now  to  deal 
with  a  very  different  power  from  the  impotent  Congress 
of  the  Confederation.  The  new  power  was  even  able  to 
exert  a  pressure  upon  the  two  States  which  had  not  yet 
ratified  the  Constitution,  though,  in  accordance  with  the 
universal  American  prejudice,  the  pressure  was  made  as 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  123 

gentle  as  possible.  As  a  first  step,  the  higher  duties 
imposed  on  imports  from  foreign  countries  were  ex 
pressly  directed  to  apply  to  imports  from  North  Carolina 
and  Rhode  Island.  North  Carolina  having  called  a 
second  convention,  her  case  was  left  to  the  course  of 
nature ;  and  the  second  convention  ratified  the  Constitu 
tion  (November  21, 1789).  The  Rhode  Island  legislature 
wrote  to  ask  that  their  State  might  not  be  considered 
altogether  foreigners,  made  their  duties  agree  with  those 
of  the  new  Government,  and  reserved  the  proceeds  for 
"continental"  purposes.  Still  no  further  steps  were 
taken.  A  bill  was  therefore  introduced  directing  the 
President  to  suspend  commercial  intercourse  with  Ehode 
Island,  and  to  demand  from  her  her  share  of  the  con 
tinental  debt.  This  was  passed  by  the  senate,  and  waited 
but  two  steps  further  to  become  law.  Unofficial  news 
paper  proposals  to  divide  up  the  little  State  between  her 
two  nearest  neighbors  were  stopped  by  her  ratification 
(May  29,  1790).  All  the  "old  thirteen"  were  thus 
united  under  the  Constitution ;  and  yet,  so  completion  of 
strong  is  the  American  prejudice  for  the  au-  the  Union- 
tonomy  of  the  States  that  these  last  two  were  allowed  to 
enter  in  the  full  conviction  that  they  did  so  in  the  exer 
cise  of  sovereign  freedom  of  choice.  Their  entrance, 
however,  was  no  more  involuntary  than  that  of  others.  If 
there  had  been  real  freedom  of  choice,  nine  States  would 
never  have  ratified :  the  votes  of  Pennsylvania,  Massa 
chusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Virginia,  and  New  York  were 
only  secured  by  the  pressure  of  powerful  minorities  in 
their  own  States,  backed  by  the  almost  unanimous  votes 
of  the  others. 

146.    Protection  was   begun  in   the   first  Tariff   Act, 
whose  object,  said  its  preamble,  was  the  protection  of 


124  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

domestic  manufactures.  The  duties,  however,  ranged 
only  from  7-*-  to  10  per  cent,  averaging  about  8-J-  per 
Hamiitonian  cent.  The  system,  too,  had  rather  a  polit- 
protection.  jcaj  than  an  economic  basis.  Until  1789 
the  States  had  controlled  the  imposition  of  duties.  The 
separate  State  feeling  was  a  factor  so  strong  that  seces 
sion  was  a  possibility  which  every  statesman  had  to  take 
into  account.  Hamilton's  object,  in  introducing  the 
system,  seems  to  have  been  to  create  a  class  of  manu 
facturers,  running  through  all  the  States,  but  dependent 
for  prosperity  on  the  new  Federal  Government  and  its 
tariff.  This  would  be  a  force  which  would  make  strongly 
for  national  Government,  and  against  any  attempt  at 
secession,  or  against  the  tendency  to  revert  in  practice  to 
the  old  system  of  control  by  State  legislatures,  even 
though  it  based  the  national  idea  on  a  conscious  ten 
dency  towards  the  development  of  classes.  The  same 
feeling  seems  to  have  been  at  the  bottom  of  his  establish 
ment  of  a  national  bank,  his  assumption  of  State  debts, 
and  most  of  the  general  scheme  which  his  influence 
forced  upon  the  Federal  party. 

147.    In  forming  his   cabinet,    Washington   had  paid 

attention  to  the   opposing  elements  which  had  united 

for  the  temporary  purpose  of  ratifying  the 

The  first  cabinet.  „,.,,.  ,--11 

Constitution.  The  national  element  was 
represented  by  Hamilton,  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
and  Knox,  secretary  of  war;  the  particularist  element 
(using  the  term  to  indicate  support  of  the  States, 
not  of  a  State)  by  Jefferson,  secretary  of  state,  and 
Edmund  Eandolph,  attorney-general.  It  was  hot  long 
before  the  drift  of  opinion"  in  cabinet  meetings  showed 
an  irreconcilable  divergence,  on  almost  every  subject, 
between  these  two  elements,  and  Hamilton  and  Jefferson 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  125 

became  the  representatives  of  the  two  opposite  tenden 
cies  which  have  together  made  up  the  sum  of  public 
American  history.  At  the  end  of  1792  matters  were  in 
train  for  the  general  recognition  of  the  existence  of  two 
parties,  whose  struggles  were  to  decide  the  course  of  the 
Constitution's  development.  The  occasion  came  in  the 
opening  of  the  following  year,  when  the  new  nation  was 
first  brought  into  contact  with  the  French  Eevolution. 

148.  The  controlling  tendency   of  Jefferson   and  his 
school  was  to  the  maintenance  of  individual  rights  at 
the  highest  possible  point,  as  the  Hamilton    Thejeffer 
school  was  always  ready  to  assert  the  national  son  school  of 
power  to  restrict   individual   rights   for   the       poh 
general   good.      Other   points   of  difference   are   rather 
symptomatic  than  essential.     The  Jefferson  school  sup 
ported  the  States,  not  out  of  love  for  the  States,  but  out 
of  a  belief  that  the  States  were  the  best  bulwarks  for 
individual  rights.     When  the  French  Revolution  began 
its  usual  course  in  America  by  agitating  for  the  "  rights 
of  man,"  it  met  a  sympathetic  audience  in  the  Jefferson 
party  and  a  cold  and  unsympathetic  hearing  from  the 
Hamilton   school   of  Federalists.     The  latter  were  far 
more  interested  in  securing  the  full  recognition  of  the 
power   and  rights  of  the   nation   than  in  securing  the 
individual  against  imaginary  dangers,  as  they  thought 
them.     For  ten  years,  therefore,  the   surface   marks  of 
distinction   between   the   two   parties   were   to  be   con 
nected  with  the  course  of  events  in  Europe ;    but   the 
essence  of  distinction  was  not  in  the  surface  marks. 

149.  The  new   Government  was   not  yet   four   years 
old ;    it    was   not    familiar,   nor   of    assured  The  Hamilton 
permanency.    The  only  national  Governments       school. 

of  which  Americans  had  had  previous  experience  were 


126  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  British  Government  and  the  Confederation;  in  the 
former  they  had  had  no  share,  and  the  latter  had  had  no 
power.  The  only  places  in  which  they  had  had  long- 
continued,  full,  and  familiar  experience  of  self-govern 
ment  were  their  State  Governments ;  these  were  the 
only  governmental  forms  which  were  then  distinctly 
associated  in  their  minds  with  the  general  notion  of 
republican  government.  The  governing  principle  of  the 
Hamilton  school,  that  the  construction  or  interpretation 
of  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  was  to  be  such  as  to 
broaden  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government,  neces 
sarily  involved  a  corresponding  trenching  on  the  powers 
of  the  States  (§  106).  It  was  natural,  then,  that  the 
Jefferson  school  should  look  on  every  feature  of  the 
Hamilton  programme  as  "  anti-republican,"  meaning, 
probably,  at  first  no  more  than  opposed  to  the  State 
system  as,  hitherto  known,  though,  with  the  growth  of 
political  bitterness,  the  term  soon  came  to  imply  some 
thing  of  monarchical,  and,  more  particularly,  of  English 
tendencies.  The  disposition  of  the  Jefferson  school  to 
claim  for  themselves  a  certain  peculiar  title  to  the  posi 
tion  of  "  republicans "  soon  developed  into  the  appear 
ance  of  the  first  Republican  party,  about  1793. 

150.    Many  of  the  Federalists  were  shrewd  and  active 
business  men,  who  naturally  took  prompt  advantage  of 
the    opportunities    which    the    new    system 
BS'  offered.     The  Republicans  therefore  believed 
and  asserted  that  the  whole  Hamilton  programme  was 
dictated  by  selfish  or  class   interest;    and   they  added 
this  to  the  accusation  of  monarchical  tendencies.     These 
charges,   with    the   fundamental    differences   of   mental 
constitution,  exasperated   by  the   passion   which  differ 
ences  as  to  the  French  Revolution  seemed  to  carry  with 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  127 

them  everywhere,  made  the  political  history  of  this 
decade  a  very  unpleasant  record.  The  provision  for 
establishing  the  national  capital  on  the  Potomac  (1790) 
was  declared  to  have  been  carried  by  a  cor- 

.  .  .  The  national 

rupt  bargain ;  and  accusations  01  corruption      capital. 
were  renewed  at  every  opportunity.     In  1793 

J        rr  J  Genet's  mission. 

a  French  agent,  Genet,  appeared  to  claim  the 
assistance  of  the  United  States  for  the  French  republic. 
Washington  decide^  to  issue  a  proclamation  of  neutral 
ity,  the  first  act  of  the  kind  in  American  history.     It 
was  the  first  indication,  also,  of  the  policy  which  has 
made  the  course  of  every  President,  with  the  exception 
of   Polk    (§  223),  a  determined  leaning  to  peace,  even 
when  the  other  branches  of  the  Government  have  been 
intent  on  war.     The  proclamation  of  1793  brought  about 
the  first  distinctly  party  feeling ;  and  it  was   The  Whiskey 
intensified    by    Washington's     charge    that    lnsurrection. 
popular  opposition  in  western  Pennsylvania  (1794)  to 
the  new  excise  law  had  been  fomented  by  the  extreme 
French  party.     Their  name,  Democrat,  was  applied  by 
the  Federalists  to  the  whole  Eepublican  party  as  a  term 
of  contempt,  but  it  was  not  accepted  by  the  party  for 
some  twenty  years ;  then  the  compound  title  of  "  Demo 
cratic-Republican  "  became,  as  it  still  is,  the  official  title 
of  the  party.     There  was  no  party  opposition,    Admission  of 
however,  to  the  re-election  of  Washington  in  Vermont'  Ken- 

tucky,  and  Ten- 

1792,  or  to  the  admission  of  Vermont  (1791),       nessee. 
Kentucky  (1792),  and  Tennessee  (1796)  as  new  States. 

151.  The  British  Government  had  accredited  no  min 
ister  to  the  United  States,  and  it  refused  to  make  any 
commercial  treaty  or  to  give  up  the  forts  in  the  western 
territory  of  the  United  States,  through  which  its  agents 
still  exercised  a  commanding  influence  over  the  Indians. 


128  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

In  the  course  of  its  war  with  France,  the  neutral  American 
vessels,  without  the  protection  of  a  national  navy,  fared 

badly.  A  treaty  negotiated  by  Chief-Justice 
eaty>  Jay  (1794)  settled  these  difficulties  for  the 
following  ten  years.  But,  as  it  engaged  the  United 
States  against  any  intervention  in  the  war  on  behalf  of 
France,  and  as  it  granted  some  unfamiliar  privileges  to 
Great  Britain,  particularly  that  of  extradition,  the  Repub 
licans  made  it  very  unpopular,  and  the  first  personal 
attacks  on  Washington's  popularity  grew  out  of  it.  In 
spite  of  occasional  Eepublican  successes,  the  Federalists 
retained  a  general  control  of  national  affairs  ;  they  elected 

John  Adams  President  in  1796,  though  Jeffer- 

Election  of  1796.  ,  TT.         _,.          ...  .    ,     ..   . 

son  was  chosen  Vice-President  with  him ;  and 
the  national  policy  of  the  Federalists  kept  the  country 
out  of  entangling  alliances  with  any  of  the  European 
belligerents.  To  the  Eepublicans,  and  to  the  French 
republic,  this  last  point  of  policy  was  only  a  practical 
intervention  against  France  and  against  the  rights  of 
man. 

152.  At  the  end  of  Washington's  administration  the 
French  Directory,  following  up  its  successes  in  Germany 
and  Italy  and  its  exactions  from  conquered  powers,  broke 
off  relations  with  the  United  States,  demanding  the  abro 
gation  of  Jay's  treaty  and  a  more  pronounced  sympathy 
The"x.Y.z."  with  France.  Adams  sent  three  envoys  to 
mission,  endeavor  to  re-establish  the  former  relations  ; 
they  were  met  by  official  or  unofficial  demands  for  "money, 
a  great  deal  of  money,"  as  a  prerequisite  to  peace.  They 
refused;  their  letters  home  were  published;  and  the 
Federalists  at  last  had  the  opportunity  of  riding  the 
whirlwind  of  an  intense  popular  desire  for  war  with 
France.  Intercourse  with  France  was  suspended  by  Con- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  129 

gress  (1798)  ;  the  treaties  with  France  were  declared  at 
an  end :  American  frigates  were  authorized  to  capture 
French  vessels  guilty  of  depredations  on  American  com 
merce,  and  the  President  was  authorized  to  issue  letters 
of  marque  and  reprisal;  and  an  American  army  was 
formed,  Washington  being  called  from  his  retirement  at 
Mount  Vernon  to  command  it.  The  war  Quasi-War  with 
never  went  beyond  a  few  sea-fights,  in  which  France- 
the  little  American  navy  did  itself  credit,  and  Napoleon, 
seizing  power  the  next  year,  renewed  the  peace  which 
should  never  have  been  broken.  But  the  quasi-war  had 
internal  consequences  to  the  young  republic  which  sur 
passed  in  interest  all  its  foreign  difficulties :  it  brought 
on  the  crisis  which  settled  the  development  of  the  United 
States  towards  democracy. 

153.  The  reaction  in  Great  Britain  against  the  indefinite 
"  rights  of  man  "  had  led  parliament  to  pass  an  alien  law, 
a  sedition  law  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  Error  of  the 
corpus,  and  an  Act  giving  wide  and  scarcely  Federalists. 
defined  powers  to  magistrates  for  the  dispersion  of  meet 
ings  to  petition  for  redress  of  grievances.  The  Feder 
alists  were  in  control  of  a  Congress  of  limited  powers ; 
but  they  were  strongly  tempted  by  sympathies  and  antip 
athies  of  every  sort  to  form  their  programme  on  the 
model  furnished  from  England.  The  measures  which 
they  actually  passed  were  based  only  on  that  construction 
of  the  Constitution  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  Amer 
ican  politics ;  they  only  tended  to  force  the  Constitution 
into  an  anti-democratic  direction.  But  it  was  the  fixed 
belief  of  their  opponents  that  they  meant  to  go  farther, 
—  to  forget  the  limitations  imposed  by  the  ten  years'  old 
Constitution,  and  to  secure  their  own  control  by  some 
wholesale  measure  of  political  persecution. 


130  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

154.  Three  alien  laws  were  passed.     The  first  raised 
the  number  of  years  necessary  for  naturalization  from 

five   to   fourteen.     The  third   permitted  the 

The  Alien 

and  Sedition  arrest  of  subjects  of  any  foreign  power  with 
which  the  United  States  should  be  at  war. 
The  second,  which  is  usually  known  as  the  Alien  Law, 
was  limited  to  a  term  of  two  years;  it  permitted  the 
President  to  arrest  or  order  out  of  the  country  any  alien 
whom  he  should  consider  dangerous  to  the  country.  As 
many  of  the  Republican  editors  and  local  leaders  were 
aliens,  this  law  really  put  the  whole  Kepublican  organiza 
tion  in  the  power  of  the  President  elected  by  their  oppo 
nents.  The  Sedition  Law  made  it  a  crime,  punishable 
by  fine  and  imprisonment,  to  publish  or  print  any  false, 
scandalous,  and  malicious  writings  against  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  either  house  of  Congress,  or 
the  President,  with  intent  to  defame  them,  or  to  bring 
them  into  contempt  or  disrepute,  or  to  excite  against 
them  the  hatred  of  the  good  people  of  the  United  States, 
or  to  stir  up  sedition  or  opposition  to  any  lawful  Act  of 
Congress  or  of  the  President,  or  to  aid  the  designs  of  any 
foreign  power  against  the  United  States.  In  its  first 
form  the  bill  was  even  more  loose  and  sweeping  than 
this,  and  alarmed  the  opposition  thoroughly. 

155.  Almost  all  the  ability  of  the  country  was  in  the 
Federalist  ranks  ;  the  Republicans  had  but  two  first-rate 

The         men  —  Jefferson  and  Madison.    In  the  sudden 

Republican    issue  thus  forced  between   individual  rights 

lon'     and  national   power,  Jefferson  and  Madison 

could  find  but   one   bulwark   for   the   individual  —  the 

power  of  the   States ;  and   their  use   of  it  gave   their 

party  a  permanent  list  to  State  sovereignty  from  which  it 

did  not  recover  for  years.     They  objected  to  the  Alien 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  131 

Law  on  the  grounds  that  aliens  were  under  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  the  State,  not  of  the  Federal  Government ;  that 
the  jurisdiction  over  them  had  not  been  transferred  to 
the  Federal  Government  by  the  Constitution,  and  that  the 
assumption  of  it  by  Congress  was  a  violation  of  the  Con 
stitution's  reservation  of  powers  to  the  States ;  and, 
further,  because  the  Constitution  reserved  to  every  "  per 
son,"  not  to  every  citizen,  the  right  to  a  jury  trial  (§  127). 
They  objected  to  the  Sedition  Law  on  the  grounds  that 
the  Constitution  had  specified  exactly  the  four  crimes  for 
whose  punishment  Congress  was  to  provide ;  that  crim 
inal  libel  was  not  one  of  them ;  and  that  Amendment  I. 
forbade  Congress  to  pass  any  law  restricting  freedom  of 
speech  or  of  the  press.  The  Federalists  asserted  a  com 
mon-law  power  in  Federal  judges  to  punish  for  libel,  and 
pointed  to  a  provision  in  the  Sedition  Law  permitting 
the  truth  to  be  given  in  evidence,  as  an  improvement  on 
the  common  law,  instead  of  a  restriction  on  individual 
liberty. 

156.  The  Eepublican  objections  might  have  been  made 
in  court,  on  the  first  trial.  But  the  Eepublican  leaders 
had  strong  doubts  of  the  impartiality  of  the 

Virginia 

Federal  judges,  who  were  Federalists.  They  and  Kentucky 
resolved  to  intrench  the  party  in  the  State  resolutions- 
legislatures.  The  Virginia  legislature  in  1789  passed  a 
series  of  resolutions  prepared  by  Madison,  and  the  Ken 
tucky  legislature  in  the  same  year  passed  a  series  pre 
pared  by  Jefferson.  Neglected  or  rejected  by  the  other 
States,  they  were  passed  again  by  their  legislatures  in 
1799,  and  were  for  a  long  time  the  documentary  basis  of 
the  Democratic  party  (§  320).  The  leading  idea  ex 
pressed  in  both  was  that  the  Constitution  was  a  "  com 
pact"  between  the  States,  and  that  the  powers  (the 


132  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

States)  which,  had  made  the  compact  had  reserved  the 
power  to  restrain  the  creature  of  the  compact,  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  whenever  it  undertook  to  assume  pow 
ers  not  granted  to  it.  Madison's  idea  seems  to  have  been 
that  the  restraint  was  to  be  imposed  by  a  second  conven 
tion  of  the  States.  Jefferson's  idea  is  more  doubtful; 
if  it  meant  that  the  restraint  should  be  imposed  by  any 
State  which  should  feel  aggrieved,  his  scheme  was  merely 
Calhoun's  idea  of  nullification  (§  206);  but  there  are 
some  indications  that  he  agreed  with  Madison. 

157.  The   first   Congress   of  Adams's   term   of   office 
ended  in  1799.     Its  successor,  elected  in  the  heat  of  the 
war  excitement,  kept  the  Federalist  policy  up  to  its  first 

Effects  of  the  pitch.  Out  of  Congress  the  execution  of  the 
laws.  objectionable  laws  had  taken  the  shape  of  po 
litical  persecution.  Men  were  arrested,  tried,  and  punished 
for  writings  which  the  people  had  been  accustomed  to 
consider  quite  within  legitimate  political  methods.  Some 
of  the  charges  were  petty,  and  some  ridiculous.  The 
Republican  leaders  made  every  trial  as  public  as  possi 
ble,  and  gained  votes  constantly,  so  that  the  Federalists 
began  to  be  shy  of  the  very  powers  which  they  had 
sought.  Every  new  election  was  a  storm-signal  for  the 
Federal  party;  and  the  danger  was  increased  by  the 
appearance  of  schism  in  their  own  ranks. 

158.  Hamilton  was  now  a  private  citizen  of  New  York ; 
but  he  had  the  confidence  of  his  party  more  largely  than 

Federalist  its  nominal  head,  the  President,  and  he  main- 
schism,  tained  close  and  confidential  relations  with 
the  cabinet  which  Adams  had  taken  unchanged  from 
Washington.  The  Hamilton  faction  saw  no  way  of  pre 
serving  and  consolidating  the  newly  acquired  powers  of 
the  Federal  Government  but  by  keeping  up  and  increas- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  133 


ing  the  war  feeling  against  France;  Adams  had  the 
instinctive  leaning  of  an  American  President  towards 
peace.  Amid  cries  of  wrath  and  despair  from  his  party 
he  accepted  the  first  overtures  of  the  new  Napoleonic 
Government,  sent  envoys  to  negotiate  a  peace,  and  ordered 
them  to  depart  for  France  when  they  delayed  too  long. 
Then,  discovering  flat  treachery  in  his  cabinet,  he  dis 
missed  it  and  blurted  out  a  public  expression  of  his  feel 
ing  that  Hamilton  and  his  adherents  were  "a  British 
faction."  Hamilton  retorted  with  a  circular  letter  to  his 
party  friends,  denouncing  the  President ;  the  Republicans 
intercepted  it  and  gave  it  a  wider  circulation  than  its 
author  had  intended ;  and  the  Hamilton  faction  tried  so 
to  arrange  the  electoral  vote  that  Pinckney  should  be 
chosen  President  in  1800  and  Adams  should 

.          ,      ,         ,    .     .        .,  .  .  ,  .„.  Election  of  1800. 

be  shelved  into  the  vice-presidency.  Jkven  so, 
the  Federal  party  barely  missed  success.  As  things  turned 
out,  the  result  depended  on  the  electoral  vote  of  New 
York;  and  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  introduced  the  drill 
and  machinery  of  a  modern  American  political  party 
there,  had  made  the  State  Republican  and  secured  a  ma 
jority  for  the  Republican  candidates.  There  was  an  effort 
by  the  Federalists  to  disappoint  the  Republicans  by  mak 
ing  Burr  President;  but  Jefferson  obtained  that  office, 
Burr  becoming  Vice-President  for  four  years  (§  120). 

159.    The    "revolution  of   1800"  decided   the   future 
development  of  the  United  States.     The  new  dominant 
party  entered  upon  its  career  weighted  with  -Revolution of 
the  theory  of  State  sovereignty ;  and  a  civil       l800-" 
war  was  necessary  before  this  dogma,  put  to  use  again 
in  the  service  of  slavery,  could  be  banished  from  the 
American    system.      But    the   democratic    development 
never  was  checked.     From  that  time  the  interpretation 


134  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  the  Federal  Constitution  has  generally  favored  indi 
vidual  rights  at  the  expense  of  governmental  power.  As 
the  Republicans  obtained  control  of  the  States  they 
altered  the  State  constitutions  so  as  to  cut  out  all  the 
arrangements  that  favored  property  or  class  interests, 
and  reduced  political  power  to  the  dead  level  of  manhood 
suffrage.  In  most  of  the  States  outside  of  New  England 
this  process  was  completed  before  1815 ;  but  New  Eng 
land  tenacity  was  proof  against  the  advancing  revolution 
until  about  1820.  For  twenty  years  after  its  downfall  of 
1800  the  Federal  party  maintained  its  hopeless  strug 
gle,  and  then  it  faded  away  into  nothing,  leaving  as  its 
permanent  memorial  the  excellent  organization  of  the 
Federal  Government,  which  its  successful  rival  hardly 
changed.  Its  two  successors  —  the  Whig  and  the  second 
Republican  party  —  have  been  broad-constructionist  par 
ties,  like  the  Federal  party,  but  they  have  admitted 
democracy  as  well ;  the  Whig  party  adopted  popular 
methods  at  least,  and  the  Republican  party  grew  into  a 
theory  of  individual  rights  even  higher  than  Jefferson's 
—  the  emancipation  of  enslaved  labor. 

160.   The  disputed  election  of  1800  was  decided  in  the 

new  capital  city  of  Washington,  to  which  the  Government 

had    just    been    removed.       Its   streets   and 

The  new  capitol.  ,  .  ,  ,  m,  .       , 

parks  existed  only  on  paper.  The  capitol 
had  been  begun ;  the  White  House  was  unfinished,  and 
its  audience  room  was  used  by  Mrs.  Adams  as  a  drying 
room  for  clothes  ;  and  the  Congressmen  could  hardly  find 
lodgings.  The  inconveniences  were  only  an  exaggeration 
of  the  condition  of  other  American  cities.  Their  sani 
tary  conditions  were  so  bad  that  yellow  fever  from  time 
to  time  reduced  them  almost  to  depopulation.  Again 
and  again,  during  this  decade,  the  fever  visited  Phila- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  135 

«_ 

delphia  and  New  York,  drove  out  the  people,  and  left  the 
grass  growing  in  the  streets.  The  communication  be 
tween  the  cities  was  still  as  bad  as  could  be.  The  traveller 
was  subject  to  every  danger  or  annoyance 
that  bad  roads,  bad  carriages,  bad  horses,  bad 
inns,  and  bad  police  protection  could  combine  to  inflict 
upon  him.  But  the  rising  spirit  of  migration  seemed  to 
urge  the  people  to  conquer  these  difficulties.  The  first 
attempts  were  made  to  introduce  turnpike  roads  and 
canals  ;  and  proposals  were  advanced  for  greater  improve 
ments.  The  war  with  natural  obstacles  had  fairly  begun, 
though  it  had  little  prospect  of  success  until  steam  was 
brought  into  use  as  the  ally  of  man. 

161.  About  this  time  the  term  "  the  West "  appears. 
It  meant  then  the  western  part  of  New  York  State,  the 
new  territory  north  of  the  Ohio,  and  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  In  settling  land  boundaries 
New  York  had  transferred  to  Massachusetts,  whose  claims 
crossed  her  territory,  the  right  to  a  large  tract  of  land  in 
central  New  York.  The  sale  of  this  had  carried  popula 
tion  considerably  west  of  the  Hudson.  After  several 
American  expeditions  against  the  Ohio  Indians  had  been 
defeated,  another  under  General  Anthony  Wayne  (1794) 
had  compelled  them  to  give  up  all  the  territory  now  in 
the  State  of  Ohio.  Settlement  received  a  new  impetus 
with  increased  security,  and  the  new  state  of  affairs 
added  to  the  population  of  Kentucky,  whose  growth  had 
been  seriously  checked  by  periodical  attacks  from  the 
Indians  across  the  Ohio.  Between  1790  and  1800  the 
population  of  Ohio  had  risen  from  almost  nothing  to 
45,000,  that  of  Tennessee  from  36,000  to  106,000,  and  that 
of  Kentucky  from  74,000  to  221,000— the  last-named 
State  now  exceeding  five  of  the  "  old  thirteen  "  in  popu- 


136  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

lation.  The  difficulties  of  the  western  emigrant,  how 
ever,  were  still  enormous.  He  obtained  land  of  his  own, 
fertile  land  and  plenty  of  it,  but  little  else.  The  produce 
of  the  soil  had  to  be  consumed  at  home,  or  near  it ;  ready 
money  was  scarce  and  distant  products  scarcer;  and 
comforts,  except  the  very  rudest  substitutes  of  home 
manufacture,  were  unobtainable.  The  new  life  bore 
most  hardly  upon  women ;  and,  if  the  record  of  woman's 
share  in  the  work  of  American  colonization  could  be  fully 
made  up,  the  price  paid  for  the  final  success  would  seem 
very  great. 

162.  The  number  of  post-offices  rose  during  these  ten 
years  from  75  to  903,  the  miles  of  post-routes  from  1900 

to  21,000,  and  the  revenue  from  $38,000  to 
$231,000.  These  figures  seem  small  in  com 
parison  with  the  25,000  post-offices,  375,000  miles  of 
post-routes,  and  $45,000,000  of  revenue  of  1887,  but  the 
comparison  with  the  figures  of  1790  shows  a  development 
in  which  the  new  Constitution,  with  its  increased  security, 
must  have  been  a  factor. 

163.  The   power  of  Congress  to  regulate  patents  was 
already  bearing  fruit.     Until  1789  this  power  was  in  the 

hands  of  the  States,  and  the  privileges  of  the 
inventor  were  restricted  to  the  territory  of  the 
patenting  State.  Now  he  had  a  vast  and  growing  terri 
tory  within  which  all  the  profits  of  the  invention  were 
his  own,  and  that  development  began  by  which  human 
invention  has  been  urged  to  its  highest  point,  as  a  factor 
in  the  struggle  against  natural  forces.  Twenty  patents 
were  issued  in  1793,  and  22,000  ninety  years  afterwards ; 
but  one  of  the  inventions  of  1793,  Whitney's  cotton 
gin,  has  affected  the  history  of  the  United  States  more 
than  most  of  its  wars  or  treaties. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  DEMOCRACY.  137 

164.  When  the  Constitution  was  adopted  it  was  not 
known  that  the  cultivation  of  cotton  could  be  made  profit 
able  in  the  Southern  States.    The  "  roller  gin  " 

could  clean  only  a  half  dozen  pounds  a  day 
by  slave  labor.  In  1784  eight  bags  of  cotton  landed 
in  Liverpool  from  an  American  ship,  were  seized  on  the 
ground  that  so  much  cotton  could  not  be  the  produce 
of  the  United  States.  Eli  Whitney,  a  Connecticut  school 
teacher  residing  in  Georgia,  invented  the  saw-gin,  by 
which  the  cotton  was  dragged  through  parallel  wires 
with  openings  too  narrow  to  allow  the  seeds  to  pass ; 
and  one  slave  could  now  clean  a  thousand  pounds  a  day. 
The  exports  of  cotton  leaped  from  189,000  pounds  in  1791 
to  21,000,000  pounds  in  1801,  and  doubled  in  three  years 
more.  The  influence  of  this  one  invention,  combined 
with  the  wonderful  series  of  British  inventions  which 
had  paved  the  way  for  it,  can  hardly  be  estimated  in  its 
commercial  aspects.  Its  political  influences  were  even 
wider,  but  more  unhappy.  The  introduction  of  the 
commercial  element  into  the  slave  system  of  the  south 
robbed  it  at  once  of  the  partriarchal  features  which  had 
made  it  tolerable  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  developed  in 
slave-holders  a  new  disposition  to  uphold  and  defend  a 
system  of  slave  labor  as  a  "  positive  good."  The  aboli 
tion  societies  of  the  south  began  to  dwindle  as  soon  as 
the  results  of  Whitney's  invention  began  to  be  manifest. 

165.  The  development  of  a  class  whose  profits  were 
merely  the  extorted  natural  wages  of  the  black  laborer 
was    certain;    and    its   political    power  was    slavery  and 
as   certain,  though    it  never    showed  itself    democracy, 
clearly  until  after  1830.     And  this  class  was  to  have  a 
peculiarly  distorting  effect  on  the  political  history  of  the 
United  States.    Aristocratic  in  every  sense  but  one,  it  was 


138  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ultra-Democratic  (in  a  purely  party  sense)  in  its  devotion 
to  State  sovereignty,  for  the  legal  basis  of  the  slave  sys 
tem  was  in  the  laws  of  the  several  States.  In  time,  the 
aristocratic  element  got  control  of  the  party  which  had 
originally  looked  to  State  rights  as  a  bulwark  of  indi 
vidual  rights ;  and  the  party  was  finally  committed  to 
the  employment  of  its  original  doctrine  for  an  entirely 
different  purpose  —  the  suppression  of  the  black  laborer's 
wages. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  139 


VII. 

DEMOCRACY   AND   NATIONALITY. 

1801-29. 

166.  WHEN  Jefferson  took  office  in  1801  he  succeeded 
to  a  task  larger  than  he  imagined.     His  party,  ignoring 
the   natural    forces   which    tied    the    States  Democracy  and 
together  even  against  their  wills,  insisted  that     nationality. 
the  legal  basis  of  the  bond  was  in  the  power  of  any  State 
to  withdraw  at  will.     This  was  no  nationality ;  and  for 
eign   nations   naturally  refused   to   take   the  American 
national  coin  at  any  higher  valuation  than  that  at  which 
it  was  current  in  its  own  country.     The  urgent  necessity 
was  for  a  reconciliation  between  democracy  and  nation 
ality  ;  and  this  was  the  work  of  this  period.     An  under 
lying  sense  of  all  this  has  led  Democratic  leaders  to  call 
the  war  of  1812-15  the  "  second  war  for  independence  "  ; 
but  the  result  was  as  much  independence  of  past  ideas  as 
of  Great  Britain. 

167.  The   first  force   in   the   new  direction  was   the 
acquisition  of  Louisiana  (§  32)  in  1803.     Napoleon  had 
acquired  it  from  Spain,  and,  fearing  an  attack 

upon  it  by  Great  Britain,  offered  it  to  the 
United  States  for  $15,000,000.  Jefferson  and  his  party 
were  eager  to  accept  the  offer  ;  but  the  Constitution  gave 
the  Federal  Government  no  power  to  buy  and  hold  terri 
tory,  and  the  party  was  based  on  a  strict  construction  of 
the  Constitution.  Possession  of  power  forced  the  strict- 


140  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

construction  party  to  broaden  its  ideas,  and  Louisiana 
was  bought,  though.  Jefferson  quieted  his  conscience  by 
talking  for  a  time  of  a  futile  proposal  to  amend  the  Con 
stitution  so  as  to  grant  the  necessary  power.  The  acqui 
sition  of  the  western  Mississippi  basin  more  than  doubled 
the  area  of  the  United  States,  and  gave  them  control  of 
all  the  great  river-systems  of  central  North  America. 
The  difficulties  of  using  these  rivers  were 

The  steamboat.  ,      ,  .  .. .         ..       n        _    , 

removed  almost  immediately  by  Fulton's  util 
ization  of  steam  in  navigation  (1807).  Within  four 
years  steamboats  were  at  work  on  western  waters ;  and 
thereafter  the  increase  of  steam  navigation  and  that  of 
population  stimulated  one  another.  Population  crossed 
the  Mississippi ;  constantly  increasing  eddies  filled  up  the 
vacant  places  to  the  east  of  the  great  river;  and  all 
sections  of  the  country  advanced  as  they  had  never 

Centre  of  advanced  before.  The  "centre  of  population  " 
population.  has  been  carefully  ascertained  by  the  census 
authorities  for  each  decade,  and  it  represents  the  west 
ward  movement  of  population  very  closely.  During  this 
period  it  advanced  from  about  the  middle  of  the  State  of 
Maryland  to  its  extreme  western  limit ;  that  is,  the  centre 
of  population  was  in  1830  nearly  at  the  place  which  had 
been  the  western  limit  of  population  in  1770. 

168.    Jefferson  also  laid  the  basis  for  a  further  acquisi 
tion  in  the  future  by  sending  an  expedition  under  Lewis 
The  Oregon    and  Clarke  to  explore  the  territory  north  of 

country.  ^e  faen  Spanish  territory  of  California  and 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  — the  "  Oregon  country  "  as 
it  was  afterwards  called  (§§  221,  224).  The  explorations 
of  this  party  (1804),  with  Captain  Gray's  discovery  of 
the  Columbia  river  (1792),  made  the  best  part  of  the 
claims  of  the  United  States  to  the  country  forty  years 
later. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  141 

169.  Jefferson  was  re-elected  in  1804,  serving  until 
1809 ;  his  party  now  controlled  almost  all  the  States  out 
side  of  New  England,  and  could  elect  almost 

,  . ,  .  ,  Election  of  1804. 

any  one  whom  it  chose  to  the  presidency. 
Imitating  Washington  in  refusing  a  third  term  of  office, 
Jefferson  established  the  precedent,  which  has  not  since 
been  violated,  restricting  a  President  to  two  terms,  though 
the  Constitution  contains  no  such  restriction.  The  great 
success  of  his  presidency  had  been  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana,  which  was  a  violation  of  his  party  principles; 
but  all  his  minor  successes  were,  like  this,  recognitions 
of  the  national  sovereignty  which  he  disliked  so  much. 
After  a  short  and  brilliant  naval  war  the  Barbary  pirates 
were  reduced  to  submission  (1805).  And  the  authority 
of  the  nation  was  asserted  for  the  first  time  in  internal 
affairs.  The  long-continued  control  of  New  Orleans  by 
Spain,  and  the  persistent  intrigues  of  the  Spanish  author 
ities,  looking  towards  a  separation  of  the  whole  western 
country  from  the  United  States,  had  been  ended  by  the 
annexation  of  Louisiana,  and  they  will  probably  remain 
forever  hidden  in  the  secret  history  of  the  early  west. 
They  had  left  behind  a  dangerous  ignorance  of  Federal 
power  and  control,  of  which  Burr  took  advantage  (1807). 
Organizing  an  expedition  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
probably  for  the  conquest  of  the  Spanish  colony  of 
Mexico,  he  was  arrested  on  the  lower  Mississippi  and 
brought  back  to  Virginia.  He  was  acquitted;  but  the 
incident  opened  up  a  vaster  view  of  the  national  authority 
than  democracy  had  yet  been  able  to  take.  It  had  been 
said,  forty  years  before,  that  Great  Britain  had  long  arms, 
but  that  3000  miles  was  too  far  to  extend  them ;  it  was 
something  to  know  now  that  the  arms  of  the  Federal 
Government  were  long  enough  to  reach  from  Washington 
city  to  the  Mississippi. 


142  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

170.  All  the  success  of  Jefferson  was  confined  to  his 
first  four  years  ;  all  his  heavy  failures  were  in  his  second 

Difficulties  with  term,  in  which  he  and  his  party  as  persist- 
Great  Britain.  ently  refused  to  recognize  or  assert  the  inher 
ent  power  of  the  nation  in  international  affairs.  The 
Jay  treaty  expired  in  1804  by  limitation,  and  American 
commerce  was  thereafter  left  to  the  course  of  events, 
without  any  restriction  of  treaty  obligations,  since  Jeffer 
son  refused  to  accept  the  only  treaty  which  the  British 
Government  was  willing  to  make.  All  the  difficulties 
which  followed  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words : 
the  British  Government  was  then  the  representative  of 
the  ancient  system  of  restriction  of  commerce,  and  had 
a  powerful  navy  to  enforce  its  ideas ;  the  American 
Government  was  endeavoring  to  force  into  international 
recognition  the  present  system  of  neutral  rights  and 
unrestricted  commerce,  but  its  suspicious  democracy  re 
fused  to  give  it  a  navy  sufficient  to  command  respect  for 
its  ideas.  Indeed,  the  American  Government  did  not 
want  the  navy ;  it  apparently  expected  to  gain  its  objects 
without  the  exhibition  of  anything  but  moral  force. 

171.  Great   Britain  was   now   at  war,  from  time  to 
time,  with  almost  every   other   nation   of   Europe.     In 

Neutral  com-  time  of  peace,  European  nations  followed  gen- 
merce.  erally  the  old  restrictive  principle  of  allow 
ing  another  nation,  like  the  United  States,  no  commercial 
access  to  their  colonies ;  but,  when  they  were  at  war 
with  Great  Britain,  whose  navy  controlled  the  ocean, 
they  were  very  willing  to  allow  the  neutral  American 
merchantmen  to  carry  away  their  surplus  colonial  prod 
uce.  Great  Britain  had  insisted  for  fifty  years  that  the 
neutral  nation,  in  such  cases,  was  really  intervening  in 
the  war  as  an  ally  of  her  enemy;  but  she  had  so  far 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  143 

modified  her  claim  as  to  admit  that  "  transshipment,"  or 
breaking  bulk,  in  the  United  States  was  enough  to 
qualify  the  commerce  for  recognition,  no  matter  whither 
it  was  directed  after  transshipment.  The  neutral  nation 
thus  gained  a  double  freight,  and  grew  rich  in  the  traffic ; 
the  belligerent  nations  no  longer  had  commerce  afloat 
for  British  vessels  to  capture ;  and  the  "  frauds  of  the 
neutral  flags"  became  a  standing  subject  of  complaint 
among  British  merchants  and  naval  officers.  About  1805, 
British  prize  courts  began  to  disregard  transshipment, 
and  to  condemn  American  vessels  which  had  made  the 
voyage  from  a  European  colony  to  the  mother  country 
by  way  of  the  United  States.  This  was  really  a  restric 
tion  of  American  commerce  to  purely  American  produc 
tions,  or  to  commerce  with  Great  Britain  direct,  with 
the  payment  of  duties  in  British  ports. 

172.  The  question  of  expatriation,  too,  furnished  a  good 
many  burning  grievances.  Great  Britain  maintained  the 
old  German  rule  of  perpetual  allegiance,  though 

111  T/»     i     •.     -i          -it         •  J.T  •    -i  j.      j?     Expatriation. 

she  had  modified  it  by  allowing  the  right  of 
emigration.  The  United  States,  founded  by  immigration, 
was  anxious  to  establish  what  Great  Britain  was  not 
disposed  to  grant,  the  right  of  the  subject  to  divest  him 
self  of  allegiance  by  naturalization  under  a  foreign  ju 
risdiction.  Four  facts  thus  tended  to  break  off  friendly 
relations:  (1)  Great  Britain's  claim  to  allegiance  over 
American  naturalized  subjects ;  (2)  her  claim  to  the 
belligerent  right  of  search  of  neutral  vessels;  (3)  her 
claim  or  right  to  impress  for  her  vessels  of 

,  ,  .  ,  .  Impressment. 

war  her  subjects  who  were  seamen  wherever 
found;   and  (4)  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  native- 
born  Americans  from  British  subjects,  even  if  the  right 
to  impress  naturalized  American  subjects  were  granted. 


144  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

British  naval  officers  even  undertook  to  throw  the  onus 
probandi  upon  Americans  —  to  consider  all  who  spoke 
the  English  language  as  British  subjects,  unless  they 
could  produce  proof  that  they  were  native-born  Ameri 
cans.  The  American  sailor  who  lost  his  papers  was  thus 
open  to  impressment.  The  American  Government  in 
1810  published  the  cases  of  such  impressments  since 
1803,  as  numbering  over  4000,  about  one-third  of  the 
cases  resulting  in  the  discharge  of  the  impressed  man; 
but  no  one  could  say  how  many  cases  had  never  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  a  Government  which  never 
did  anything  more  than  remonstrate  about  them. 

173.  In  May,  1806,  the  British  Government,  by  orders 
in  council,  declared  a  blockade  of  the  whole  continent  of 

orders  m  coun-  Europe  from  Brest  to  the  Elbe,  about  800  miles. 

cii.         In  November,  after  the  battle  of  Jena,  Napo- 

Beriin and     leon  answered   by  the   "Berlin  decree/'   in 

Milan  decrees.  which  he  assmned  to  blockade   the   British 

Isles,  thus  beginning  his  "  continental  system."  A  year 
later  the  British  Government  answered  by  further  orders 
in  council,  forbidding  American  trade  with  any  country 
from  which  the  British  flag  was  excluded,  allowing  direct 
trade  from  the  United  States  to  Sweden  only,  in  Ameri 
can  products,  and  permitting  American  trade  with  other 
parts  of  Europe  only  on  condition  of  touching  in  Eng 
land  and  paying  duties.  Napoleon  retorted  with  the 
"  Milan  decree,"  declaring*  good  prize  any  vessel  which 
should  submit  to  search  by  a  British  ship ;  but  this  was 
evidently  a  vain  fulmination. 

174.  The  Democratic  party  of  the  United  States  was 

almost  exclusively  agricultural,  and  had  little 

knowledge  of  or  sympathy  with  commercial 

interests  ;  it  had  little  confidence  in  the  American  navy ; 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  145 

it  was  pledged  to  the  reduction  of  national  expenses  and 
the  debt,  and  did  not  wish  to  take  on  its  shoulders  the 
responsibility  for  a  navy ;  and,  as  the  section  of  country 
most  affected  by  the  orders  in  council,  New  England, 
was  Federalist,  and  made  up  the  active  and  irreconcil 
able  opposition,  a  tinge  of  political  feeling  could  not  but 
color  the  decisions  of  the  dominant  party.  Various 
ridiculous  proposals  were  considered  as  substitutes  for 
a  necessarily  naval  war  ;  and  perhaps  the  most  ridiculous 
was  adopted.  Since  the  use  of  non-intercourse  agree 
ments  as  revolutionary  weapons  against  Great  Britain 
(§  50),  an  overweening  confidence  in  such  measures  had 
sprung  up,  and  one  of  them  was  now  resorted  to  —  the 
embargo  (1807),  forbidding  foreign  commerce 

_,  _/  ,      ,     ,  The  embargo. 

altogether.  It  was  expected  to  starve  Great 
Britain  into  a  change  of  policy ;  and  its  effects  may  be 
seen  by  comparing  the  $20,000,000  exports  of  1790, 
$49,000,000  of  1807,  and  $9,000,000  of  1808.  It  does 
not  seem  to  have  struck  those  who  passed  the  measure 
that  the  agricultural  districts  also  might  find  the  change 
unpleasant ;  but  that  was  the  result,  and  their  complaints 
reinforced  those  of  New  England,  and  closed  Jefferson's 
second  term  in  a  cloud  of  recognized  misfortune.  The 
pressure  had  been  slightly  relieved  by  the  substitution 
of  the  Non-intercourse  Law  (1809)  for  the  Non-intercourse 
embargo ;  it  prohibited  intercourse  with  Great  law> 
Britain  and  France  and  their  dependencies,  leaving  other 
foreign  commerce  open ;  but  Madison,  Jefferson's  succes 
sor  in  1808-9,  assumed  in  the  presidency  a 

,,  ,   .    ,  •    i  ?  -v-r          •««  Election  of  1808. 

burden  which  was  not  enviable.     New  Eng 
land  was  in  a  ferment,  and  was  even  suspected  of  designs 
to  resist  the  restrictive  system  by  force  (§  180)  ;  and  the 
administration  did  not  feel  secure  enough  in  its  position 
to  face  the  future  with  confidence. 


146  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

175.  The  Non-intercourse  Law  was  to  be  abandoned  as 
to  either  belligerent  which  should  abandon  its  attacks  on 
neutral  commerce,  and  maintained  against  the  other.    In 
1810  Napoleon  officially  informed  the  American  Govern 
ment  that  he  had  abandoned  his  system.    He  continued 
to  enforce  it  in  fact;  but  his  official  fiction  served  its 
purpose  of  limiting  the  non-intercourse  for  the  future  to 
Great  Britain,  and  thus  straining  relations  between  that 
country  and  the  United  States  still  further.     The  elec 
tions  of  1811-12  resulted  everywhere  in  the  defeat  of 
"submission  men"  and  in  the  choice  of  new  members 
who  were   determined  to  resort   to  war  against  Great 
Britain  ;  France  had  not  been  able  to  offer  such  concrete 
cases  of  injury  as  her  enemy,  and  there  was  no  general 
disposition  to  include  her  in  the  war.     Clay,  Calhoun, 
Crawford,  and  other  new  men  seized  the  lead  in  the  two 
houses  of  Congress,  and  forced  Madison  to  agree  to  a 
declaration  of  war  as  a  condition  of  his  re-election  in 
Election  of  i8i2.  1812.     War  was  begun  by  the  declaration  of 
war  with  Eng-    June  18, 1812.    The  New  England  Federalists 

land-  always  called  it  "  Mr.  Madison's  war,"  but  the 
President  was  about  the  most  unwilling  participant 
in  it. 

176.  The  national  democracy  meant  to  attack  Great 
Britain  in  Canada,  partly  to  gratify  its  western  constitu 
ency,  who  had  been  harassed  by  Indian  attacks,  asserted 
to  have  been  instigated  from  Canada.     Premonitions  of 

success  were  drawn  from  the  battle  of  Tippe- 

canoe,  in  which  Harrison  had  defeated  the 

north-western  league  of  Indians  formed  by  Tecumseh 

(1811).     Between  the  solidly  settled  Atlantic  States  and 

Theatre  of  the  the  Canadian  frontier  was  a  wide  stretch  of 

war-        unsettled   or   thinly  settled   country,    which 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  147 

was  itself  a  formidable  obstacle  to  war.  Ohio  had  been 
admitted  as  a  State  in  1802,  and  Louisiana  was  admitted 
in  1812 ;  but  their  admission  had  been  due  to  the  desire 
to  grant  them  self-government  rather  than  to  their  full 
development  in  population  and  resources.  Cincinnati 
was  a  little  settlement  of  2500  inhabitants  ;  the  fringe  of 
settled  country  ran  not  very  far  north  of  it ;  and  all  be 
yond  was  a  wilderness  of  which  little  was  known  to  the 
authorities.  The  case  was  much  the  same  with  western 
New  York;  the  army  which  was  to  cross  the  Niagara 
river  must  journey  almost  all  the  way  from  Albany 
through  a  country  far  more  thinly  peopled  than  the  far 
western  territories  are  now.  The  difficulties  of  transport 
gave  opportunities  for  peculation ;  and  a  barrel  of  flour 
sometimes  reached  the  frontier  army  with  its  cost  mul 
tiplied  seven  or  eight  fold.  When  a  navy  was  to  be 
built  on  the  lakes,  the  ropes,  anchors,  guns,  and  all  ma 
terial  had  to  be  carried  overland  for  a  distance  about 
equal  to  the  length  of  England ;  and  even  then  sailors 
had  to  be  brought  to  man  the  navy,  and  the  vessels  were 
built  of  green  timber;  one  vessel  was  launched  nine 
weeks  after  her  timber  was  cut.  It  would  have  been 
far  less  costly,  as  events  proved,  to  have  entered  at  once 
upon  a  naval  war ;  but  the  crusade  against  Canada  had 
been  proclaimed  all  through  Kentucky  and  the  west,  and 
their  people  were  determined  to  wipe  out  their  old  scores 
before  the  conclusion  of  the  war. 

177.    The  war  opened  with  disaster  —  Hull's  surrender 
of  Detroit ;  and  disaster  attended  it  for  two  years.   Polit 
ical  appointments  to  positions  in  the  regular    Disasters  by 
army  were  numerous,  and  such  officers  were        land- 
worse  than  useless.     The  men  were  not  fitly  trained  or 
supplied.     The  war  department  showed  no  great  knowl- 


148  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

edge,  and  poverty  put  its  little  knowledge  out  of  service. 
Several  futile  attempts  at  invasion  were  followed  by  de 
feat  or  abortion,  until  the  political  officers  were  weeded 
out  at  the  end  of  the  year  1813,  and  Brown,  Scott,  Rip- 
ley,  and  others  who  had  fought  their  way  up  were  put  in 
command.  Then  for  the  first  time  the  men  were  drilled 
and  brought  into  effective  condition ;  and  two  successful 
chippewa  and  battles  in  1814  —  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane 
Lundy's  Lane.  —  threw  some  glory  on  the  end  of  the  war. 
So  weak  were  the  preparations  even  for  defence  that  a 
British  expedition  in  1814  met  no  effective  resistance 
when  it  landed  and  burned  Washington.  It 

Wabsji|"tgton  was  defeated,  however,  in  an  attempt  to  take 
Baltimore. 

178.  The  American  navy  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
numbered  half  a  dozen  frigates  and  about  the  same 

state  of  the  number  of  smaller  vessels.  This  was  but  a 
navy-  puny  adversary  for  the  thousand  sail  of  the 
British  navy,  which  had  captured  or  shut  up  in  port  all 
the  other  navies  of  Europe.  But  the  small  number  of 
American  vessels,  with  the  superabundance  of  trained 
officers,  gave  them  one  great  advantage ;  the  training 
and  discipline  of  the  men,  and  the  equipment  of  the 
vessels,  had  been  brought  to  the  very  highest  point. 
Captains  who  could  command  a  vessel  but  for  a  short 
time,  yielding  her  then  to  another  officer,  who  was  to 
take  his  sea  service  in  rotation,  were  all  ambitious  to 
make  their  mark  during  their  term.  "  The  art  of 
handling  and  fighting  the  old  broadside  sailing  frigate  " 
had  been  carried  in  the  little  American  navy  to  a 
point  which  unvarying  success  and  a  tendency  to  fleet- 
combats  had  now  made  far  less  common  among  British 
captains. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  149 

179.  The  first  year  of  the  war  saw  five  ship-duels,  in 
all  of  which  the  American  frigates  either  captured  or 
sunk  their  adversaries.     Four  others  followed 

in  1813,  in  two  of  which  the  British  vessels 
came  off  victorious.  The  attention  of  the  British 
Government  had  by  that  time  been  fully  diverted  to  the 
North- American  coast ;  its  blockading  fleets  made  it 
very  difficult  for  the  larger  American  vessels  to  get  to 
sea ;  and  there  were  but  seven  other  ship-combats,  in  only 
one  of  which  the  American  vessel  was  taken.  Most  of  the 
work  was  done  by  three  frigates,  the  "  Constitution/'  the 
"  Essex,"  and  the  "  United  States."  There  was  fighting 
also  on  the  Great  Lakes  between  improvised  fleets  of  small 
vessels.  Perry  captured  the  British  fleet  on  victories  on  the 
Lake  Erie  (1813)  and  Macdonough  the  Brit-  Lakes- 
ish  fleet  on  Lake  Champlain  (1814).  The  former  victory 
led  to  the  end  of  the  war  in  the  west.  Harrison,  the 
American  commander  in  that  section,  shipped  his  army 
across  the  lake  in  Perry's  fleet,  and  routed  the  British 
and  Canadian  army  at  the  Thames. 

180.  The  home  dislike  to  the  war  had  increased  stead 
ily  with  the  evidence  of  incompetent  management  by 
the  administration.    The  Federalists,  who  had  Feeling  in  New 
always  desired  a  navy,  pointed  to  the  naval     Eng'and. 
successes   as  the  best  proof  of  the   folly  with  which 
the  war  had  been  undertaken  and  managed.     New  Eng 
land  Federalists  complained  that  the  Federal   Govern 
ment  utterly  neglected  the  defence  of  their  coast,  and 
that  southern  influence  was  far  too  strong  in  national 
affairs.     They  showed  at  every  opportunity  a  disposition 
to  adopt  the  furthest  stretch  of  State  sovereignty,  as 
stated   in   the   Kentucky   resolutions ;   and   every   such 
development  urged  the  national  democracy  unconsciously 


150  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

further  on  the  road  to  nationality.  When  the  New  Eng- 
Hartford  con-  land  States  sent  delegates  to  meet  at  Hartford 
vention.  an(^  consider  their  grievances  and  the  best 
remedies  —  a  step  perfectly  proper  on  the  Democratic 
theory  of  a  "  voluntary  Union  "  —  treason  was  suspected, 
and  a  readiness  to  suppress  it  by  force  was  plainly  shown. 
The  recommendations  of  the  convention  came  to  nothing ; 
but  the  attitude  of  the  dominant  party  towards  it  is  one 
of  the  symptoms  of  the  manner  in  which  the  trials  of 
actual  war  were  steadily  reconciling  democracy  and  na 
tionality.  The  object  which.  Hamilton  had  sought  by 
high  tariffs  and  the  development  of  national  classes  had 
been  attained  by  more  natural  and  healthy  means. 

181.   In  April,  1814,  the  first  abdication  of  Napoleon 
took  place,  and  Great  Britain  was  able   to  give   more 
attention  to  her  American  antagonist.     The  main  attack 
was  to  be  made  on  Louisiana,  the  weakest  and  most  dis 
tant  portion  of  the  Union.     A  fleet  and  army  were  sent 
thither,  and,  after  much  delay,  landed  below  the  city. 
The  nearest  settled  country  was  Tennessee ;  and  between 
it  and  New  Orleans  was  a  wilderness  four 
hundred  miles  long.     Andrew   Jackson   had 
become  the  most  prominent  citizen  of  Tennessee,  and  he 
was  ordered  to  the  defence  of  New  Orleans.     His  popu 
larity  and  energy  brought  riflemen  down  the  river  and 
put  them  into  position.     The  British  assault  was  marred 
by  hopeless  blunders,  and  the  gallantry  of  the  men  only 
made  their  slaughter  and  repulse  more  complete   (Janu 
ary  8,  1815).     Peace  had  been  made  at  Ghent 
fifteen  days  before  the  battle  was  fought,  but 
the  news  of  the  battle  and  the  peace  reached  Washington 
almost  together,  the  former  going  far  to  make  the  latter 
tolerable. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  151 

182.  Though  the  land  war  had  gone  almost  uniformly 
against  the  United  States,  and  the  American  naval  suc 
cesses  had  been  just  enough  to  irritate  the  Eng 
lish  mind,  and  though  the  British  negotiators 

had  nothing  to  dread  and  everything  to  demand,  the  treaty 
was  quite  satisfactory  to  the  United  States.  It  is  true 
that  it  said  not  a  word  about  the  questions  of  impress 
ment,  search,  and  neutral  rights,  the  grounds  of  the  war; 
Great  Britain  did  not  abandon  her  position  on  any  of 
them.  But  everybody  knew  that  circumstances  had 
changed.  The  new  naval  power  whose  frigates  alone  in 
the  past  twenty  years  had  shown  their  ability  to  fight 
English  frigates  on  equal  terms  was  not  likely  to  be 
troubled  in  future  with  the  question  of  impressment; 
and  in  fact,  while  not  renouncing  the  right,  the  British 
Government  no  longer  attempted  to  enforce  it.  The 
navy,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  the  force  which  had  at 
last  given  the  United  States  a  recognized  and  cordial 
acceptance  in  the  family  of  nations;  it  had  solved  the 
problem  of  the  reconciliation  of  democracy  and  nation 
ality.  From  this  time  the  dominant  party  shows  an 
increasing  disposition  to  exalt  and  maintain  the  national 
element  of  the  American  system. 

183.  The  remainder  of  this  period  is  one  of  the  barren- 
est  in  American  history.     The  opposition  of  the  Federal 
party  to  the  war  completed  the  measure  of 

,  ,  .  Extinction 

its  unpopularity,  and  it  had  only  a  perfunctory  of  the  Federal 
existence  for  a  few  years  longer.     There  was       party- 
but  one  real  party,  and  the  political  struggles  within  it 
tended  to  take  the   shape  of  purely  personal  politics. 
Scandal,   intrigue,   and   personal   criticism   became  the 
most  marked  characteristics  of  American  politics  until 
the  dominant  party  broke  at  the  end  of  the  period,  and 


152  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

real  party  conflict  was  renewed.  But  the  seeds  of  the 
final  disruption  are  visible  from  the  peace  of  1814.  The 
old-fashioned  Republicans  looked  with  intense  suspicion 
on  the  new  form  of  republicanism  generated  by  the  war, 
a  type  which  instinctively  bent  its  energies  toward  the 
further  development  of  national  power.  Clay  was  the 
natural  leader  of  the  new  democracy ;  but  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  others  of  Federalist  antecedents  or  leanings 
took  to  the  new  doctrines  kindly;  and  even  Calhoun, 
Crawford,  and  others  of  the  southern  interest,  were  at 
first  strongly  inclined  to  support  them.  One  of  the  first 
effects  was  the  revival  of  protection  and  of  a  national 
bank. 

184.  The  charter  of  the  national  bank  (§  146)  had 
expired  in  1811,  and  the  dominant  party  had  refused  to 

Bank  of  the  recharter  it.  The  attempt  to  carry  on  the 
United  states.  war  \yy  loans  resulted  in  almost  a  bankruptcy 
and  in  a  complete  inability  to  act  efficiently.  As  soon  as 
peace  gave  time  for  consideration,  a  second  bank  was 
chartered  for  twenty  years,  with  a  capital  of  $35,000,000, 
four-fifths  of  which  might  be  in  Government  stock.  It 
was  to  have  the  custody  of  the  Government  revenues,  but 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  could  divert  the  revenues  to 
other  custodians,  giving  his  reasons  for  such  action  to 
Congress.  This  clause,  meant  to  cover  cases  in  which  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  had  no  branch  at  a  place 
where  money  was  needed,  was  afterwards  put  to  use  for 
a  very  different  purpose  (§  204). 

185.  Protection    was    advocated    again    on    national 
grounds,  but  not  quite  on  those  which  had  moved  Ham 
ilton  (§  146).     The  additional  receipts  were 

ion-     now  to   be   expended   for  fortifications   and 
other  national  defences,  and  for  national  roads  and  canals, 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  153 

the  latter  to  be  considered  solely  as  military  measures, 
with  an  incidental  benefit  to  the  people.  Business  dis 
tress  among  the  people  gave  additional  force  to  the 
proposal.  The  war  and  blockade  had  been  an  active  form 
of  protection,  under  which  American  manufactures  had 
sprung  up  in  great  abundance.  As  soon  as  peace  was 
made  English  manufacturers  poured  their  products  into 
the  United  States,  and  drove  their  American  rivals  out 
of  business  or  reduced  them  to  desperate  straits.  Their 
cries  to  Congress  for  relief  had  a  double  effect.  They 
gave  the  spur  to  the  nationalizing  advocates  of  protection, 
and,  as  most  of  the  manufacturers  were  in  New  England 
or  New  York,  they  developed  in  the  citadel  of  Federalism 
a  class  which  looked  for  help  to  a  Eepublican  Congress, 
and  was  therefore  bound  to  oppose  the  Federal  party. 
This  was  the  main  force  which  brought  New  England 
into  the  Eepublican  fold  before  1825.  An 

.,  ,  ,,  .      ,,  /,  Manufactures. 

increase  in  the  number  01  spindles  trom 
80,000  in  1811  to  500,000  in  1815,  and  in  cotton  con 
sumption  from  500  bales  in  1800  to  90,000  in  1815,  the 
rise  of  manufacturing  towns,  and  the  rapid  development 
of  the  mechanical  tendencies  of  a  people  who  had  been 
hitherto  almost  exclusively  agricultural,  were  influences 
which  were  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  politics  of  a  dem 
ocratic  country. 

186.  The  tariff  of  1816  imposed  a  duty  of  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  on  imports  of  cotton  and  woollen  goods, 
and  specific  duties  on  iron  imports.  The  ad 

7  ,     ,.  .     ,  „  Tariff  of  1816. 

valorem  duties  carried  most  01  the  manutac- 
turers  through  the  financial  crisis  of   1818-19,  but  the 
iron  duties  were  less  satisfactory.     In  English  manufac 
ture  the  substitution  of  coke  for  charcoal  in  iron  production 
led  to  continual  decrease  in  price.     As  the  price  went 


154  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

down  the  specific  duties  were  continually  increasing  the 
absolute  amount  of  protection.  Thus  spared  the  necessity 
for  improvements  in  production,  the  American  manufac 
turers  felt  English  competition  more  keenly  as  the  years 
went  by,  and  called  for  more  protection. 

187.   Monroe  succeeded  Madison  as  President  in  1817, 

and,  re-elected  with  hardly  any  opposition  in  1820,  he 

served  until  1825.     So  complete  was  the  supremacy  of  the 

Republican  party  that  this  is  often  called  "the  era  of 

good  feeling."     It  came  to  an  end  when  a  successor  to 

-Era  of  good   Monroe  was  to  be  elected;  the  two  sections 

feeling."      Of  faQ  dominant  party  then  had  their  first 

opportunity  for  open   struggle.      During  Monroe's  two 

terms   of  office   the  nationalizing  party   developed  the 

policy  on  which  it  proposed  to  manage  national  affairs. 

This  was  largely  the  product  of  the  continually  swelling 

western  movement  of  population.     The  influence  of  the 

steamboat  was  felt  more  and  more  every  year,  and  the 

want  of  a  similar  improvement  in  land  transport  was 

correspondingly  evident.  The  attention  drawn  to  western 

New  York  by  the  war  had  filled  that  part  of  the  State 

with  a  new  population.     The  Southern  Indians  had  been 

completely  overthrown  by  Jackson  during  the  war  of 

1812,  and  forced  to  cede  their  lands  ;  all  the  territory 

west  of  Georgia  was  thus  opened  up  to  settlement.     The 

admission  of  the  new  States  of  Indiana  (1816), 

ind7a'n"!°Mi°s-  Mississippi  (1817),  Illinois  (1818),  Alabama 

nois^Aiaba".   (1819),  Maine  (1820),  and  Missouri  (1821)— 

ma,'  Maine,  all  but  Maine  the  product  and  evidence   of 

western  growth — were  the  immediate  results 

of  the  development  consequent  upon  the  war.     All  the 

territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  except  the  northern  part 

of  the  north-west  territory,  was  now  formed  into  self- 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  155 

governing  States  ;  the  State  system  had  already  crossed 
the  Mississippi ;  and  all  that  was  needed  for  further  de 
velopment  was  the  locomotive  engine.  The  four  millions 
of  1790  had  grown  into  thirteen  millions  in  1830 ;  and 
there  was  a  steady  increase  of  one-third  in  each  decade. 

188.  The  urgent  demand  of  western  settlers  for  some 
road  to  a  market  led  to  a  variety  of  schemes  to  facilitate 
intercourse  between  the  east  and  the  west,  —  the  most 
successful  being  that  completed  in  New  York  in  1825, 
the  Erie  Canal.  The  Hudson  river  forms  the 
great  natural  breach  in  the  barrier  range 
which  runs  parallel  to  the  Atlantic  coast.  When  the 
traveller  has  passed  up  the  Hudson  through  that  range 
he  sees  before  him  a  vast  champaign  country  extending 
westward  to  the  Great  Lakes,  and  perfectly  adapted  by 
nature  for  a  canal.  Such  a  canal,  to  turn  western  traffic 
into  the  lake  rivers  and  through  the  lakes,  the  canal,  and 
the  Hudson  to  New  York  city,  was  begun  by  the  State 
through  the  influence  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  was  derisively 
called  "Clinton's  big  ditch"  until  its  completion,  and 
laid  the  foundations  for  the  great  commercial  prosperity 
of  New  York  State  and  city.  Long  before  it  was  finished 
the  evident  certainty  of  its  success  had  seduced  other 
States  into  far  less  successful  enterprises  of  the  kind 
and  had  established  as  a  nationalizing  policy  the  combi 
nation  of  high  tariffs  and  expenditures  for  internal  im 
provements  which  was  long  known  as  the  "American 
system."  The  tariffs  of  duties  on  imports  The -American 
were  to  be  carried  as  high  as  revenue  results  system." 
would  approve ;  within  this  limit  the  duties  were  to  be 
defined  for  purposes  of  protection ;  and  the  Superabun 
dant  revenues  were  to  be  expended  for  the  improvement 
of  roads,  rivers,  and  harbors,  and  for  every  enterprise 


156  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

which  would  tend  to  aid  the  people  in  their  efforts  to 
subdue  the  continent.  Protection  was  now  to  be  for 
national  benefit,  not  for  the  benefit  of  classes.  Western 
farmers  were  to  have  manufacturing  towns  at  their 
doors,  as  markets  for  the  surplus  which  had  hitherto 
been  rotting  on  their  farms ;  competition  among  manu 
facturers  was  to  keep  down  prices ;  migration  to  all  the 
new  advantages  of  the  west  was  to  be  made  easy  at 
national  expense ;  and  Henry  Clay's  eloquence  was  to 
commend  the  whole  policy  to  the  people.  *The  old 
democracy,  particularly  in  the  south,  insisted  that  the 
whole  scheme  really  had  its  basis  in  benefits  to  classes, 
that  its  communistic  features  were  not  such  as  the  Con 
stitution  meant  to  cover  by  its  grant  of  power  to  Con 
gress  to  levy  taxation  for  the  general  welfare,  and  that 
any  such  legislation  would  be  unconstitutional.  The 
Tariffs  of  1824  dissatisfaction  in  the  south  rose  higher  when 
and  1828.  fae  tariffs  WQiG  increased  in  1824  and  1828. 
The  proportion  of  customs  revenue  to  dutiable  imports 
rose  to  37  per  cent,  in  1825  and  to  44  per  cent,  in  1829 ; 
and  the  ratio  to  aggregate  imports  to  33  per  cent,  in  1825 
and  37  per  cent,  in  1829.  As  yet,  however,  the  southern 
dissatisfaction  showed  itself  only  in  resolutions  of  State 
legislatures. 

189.  In  the  sudden  development  of  the  new  nation 
circumstances  had  conspired  to  give  social  forces  an  ab 
normally  materialistic  cast,  and  this  had  strongly  influ 
enced  the  expression  of  the  national  life.     Its  literature 
and  its  art  had  amounted  to  little,  for  the  American 
people  were  still  engaged  in  the  fiercest  of  warfare  against 
natural  difficulties,  which  absorbed  all  their  energies. 

190.  In  international  relations  the  action  of  the  Gov 
ernment  was  strong,  quiet,  and  self-respecting.     Its  first 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  157 

weighty  action  took  place  in  1823.  It  had  become  pretty 
evident  that  the  Holy  Alliance,  in  addition  to  its  inter 
ventions  in  Europe  to  suppress  popular  risings,  meant  to 
aid  Spain  in  bringing  her  revolted  South  American  colo 
nies  to  obedience.  Great  Britain  had  been  drifting  steadily 
away  from  the  Alliance,  and  Canning,  the  new  secretary, 
determined  to  call  in  the  weight  of  the  trans-Atlantic 
power  as  a  check  upon  it.  A  hint  to  the  American 
minister  was  followed  by  a  few  pregnant  passages  in 
President  Monroe's  annual  message  in  De-  The  Monroe 
cember.  Stating  the  friendly  relations  of  the  doctrine. 
United  States  with  the  new  South  American  republics, 
he  went  on  to  say,  "  We  could  not  view  an  interposition 
for  oppressing  them  (the  South  American  states),  or  con 
trolling  in  any  other  manner  their  destiny  by  any  Euro 
pean  power,  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  manifestation  of 
an  unfriendly  disposition  towards  the  United  States."  If 
both  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  were  to  take 
this  ground  the  fate  of  a  fleet  sent  by  the  Alliance 
across  the  Atlantic  was  not  in  much  doubt,  and  the 
project  was  at  once  given  up.  The  "  Monroe  doctrine/7 
however,  has  remained  the  rule  of  foreign  intercourse 
for  all  American  parties.  Added  to  the  already  estab 
lished  refusal  of  the  United  States  to  become  entangled 
in  any  European  wars  or  alliances,  it  has  separated  the 
two  continents,  to  their  common  advantage. 

191.   It  was  supposed  at  the  time  that  Spain  might 
transfer  her  colonial  claims  to  some  stronger  power ;  arid 
Mr.  Monroe  therefore  went  on  to  say  that  "  the    The  coioniai 
American  continents  should  no  longer  be  sub-       clause. 
jects  for  any  new  European  colonial  settlement."     The 
meaning  of  this  was  well  understood  at  the  time ;  and,  when 
its  condition  failed,  the  statement  lost  its  force.     It  has 


158  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

been  supposed  that  it  bound  the  United  States  to  resist 
any  further  establishment  of  European  colonies  in  the 
Americas.  Such  a  role  of  universal  arbiter  has  always 
been  repudiated  by  the  United  States, — though  its  sym 
pathies,  more  or  less  active,  must  always  go  with  any 
American  republic  which  falls  into  collision  with  any 
such  colonizing  scheme. 

192.  By  a  treaty  with  Russia   (1825)  that  power  gave 
up  all  claims  on  the  Pacific  coast  south  of  the  present 

The  north-west  limits  of  Alaska.  The  northern  boundary  of 
boundary,  the  United  States  had  been  settled  by  the 
treaty  of  1783 ;  and,  after  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  a 
convention  with  Great  Britain  settled  the  boundary  on 
the  line  of  49°  N.  lat.  as  far  west  as  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  (1818).  West  of  these  mountains  the  so-called 
Oregon  country  (§  168),  on  whose  limits  the  two  pow 
ers  could  not  agree,  was  to  be  held  in  common  possession 
for  ten  years.  This  common  possession  was  prolonged 
by  another  convention  (1827)  indefinitely,  with  the  priv 
ilege  to  either  power  to  terminate  it  on  giving  twelve 
months'  notice.  This  arrangement  lasted  until  1846 
(§  224). 

193.  Monroe's  terms  of  office  came  to  an  end  in  1825. 
He  had  originally  been  an  extreme  Democrat,  who  could 
hardly  speak  of  Washington  with  patience  ;  he  had  slowly 
changed  into  a  very  moderate  Republican,  whose  tenden 
cies  were  oagerly  claimed  by  the  few  remaining  Feder 
alists  as  identical  with  their  own.      The  nationalizing 
faction  of  the  dominant  party  had  scored  almost  all  the 
successes  of  the  administration,  and  the  divergence  be 
tween  it  and  the  opposing  faction  was  steadily  becoming 
more  apparent.     All  the  candidates  for  the  presidency  in 
1824  —  Andrew  Jackson,  a  private  citizen  of  Tennessee ; 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  159 

William  H.  Crawford,  Monroe's  secretary  of  the  treas 
ury  ;  John  Quincy  Adams,  his  secretary  of  state  j  and 
Henry  Clay,  the  speaker  of  the  house  of 

*'  ,    .          ,    ,        ,        -D  .  , .  Election  of  1824. 

representatives  —  claimed  to  be  Eepublicans 
alike ;  but  the  personal  nature  of  the  struggle  was  shown 
by  the  tendency  of  their  supporters  to  call  themselves 
"  Adams  men  "  or  "  Jackson  men,"  rather  than  by  any  real 
party  title.  Calhoun  was  supported  by  all  parties  for 
the  vice-presidency,  and  was  elected  without  difficulty. 
The  choice  of  a  President  was  more  doubtful. 

194.  None  of  the  four  candidates  had  anything  like  a 
party  organization  behind  him.  Adams  and  Clay  repre 
sented  the  nationalizing  element,  as  Crawford 
and  Jackson  did  not ;  but  there  the  likeness 
among  them  stopped.  The  strongest  forces  behind 
Adams  were  the  new  manufacturing  and  commercial  in 
terests  of  the  east ;  behind  Clay  were  the  desires  of  the 
west  for  internal  improvements  at  public  expense  as  a 
set-off  to  the  benefits  which  the  seaboard  States  had 
already  received  from  the  Government ;  and  the  two  ele 
ments  were  soon  to  be  united  into  the  National  Republican 
or  Whig  party.  Crawford  was  the  representative  of  the 
old  Democratic  party,  with  all  its  southern  influences 
and  leanings.  Jackson  was  the  personification  of  the 
new  democracy  —  not  very  cultured,  perhaps,  but  honest, 
and  hating  every  shade  of  class  control  instinctively.  As 
he  became  better  known  the  whole  force  of  the  new  drift 
.of  things  turned  in  his  direction  ;  "hurrah  for  Jackson" 
undoubtedly  often  represented  tendencies  which  the 
speaker  would  have  found  it  hard  to  express  otherwise. 
Crawford  was  taken  out  of  the  race,  just  after  this  elec 
tion,  by  physical  failure,  and  Adams  by  the  revival  of 
ancient  quarrels  with  the  Federalists  of  New  England; 


160  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  the  future  was  to  be  with  Clay  or  with  Jackson.  But 
in  1824  the  question  of  success  among  the  four  was  not 
an  easy  one  to  decide.  The  electors  gave  no  one  a  ma 
jority  ;  and  the  house  of  representatives  gave  the  presi 
dency  to  Adams  (§§  119,  120). 

195.  Adams's   election  in   1824  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  Clay's  friends  in  the  house  —  unable  to  vote  for  him, 
as  he  was  the  lowest  in  the  electoral  vote,  and  only  three 
names  were  open  to  choice  in  the  house  —  very  naturally 
gave  their  votes  to  Adams.     As  Adams  appointed  Clay 

The  Adams  ad-  to  the  leading  position  in  his  cabinet,  the 
ministration,  defeated  party  at  once  raised  the  cry  of 
"  bargain  and  intrigue,"  one  of  the  most  effective  in  a 
democracy,  and  it  was  kept  up  throughout  Adams's  four 
years  of  office.  Jackson  had  received  the  largest  number 
of  electoral  votes,  though  not  a  majority  ;  and  the  hazy 
notion  that  he  had  been  injured  because  of  his  devotion 
to  the  people  increased  his  popularity.  Though  dema 
gogues  made  use  of  it  for  selfish  purposes,  this  feeling 
was  an  honest  one,  and  Adams  had  nothing  to  oppose  to  it. 
He  tried  vigorously  to  uphold  the  "  American  system," 
and  succeeded  in  passing  the  tariff  of  1828 ;  he  tried  to 
maintain  the  influence  $f  the  United  States  on  both  the 
American  continents ;  but  he  remained  as  unpopular  as 
his  rival  grew  popular.  In  1828  Adams  was 

Election  of  1828.  „  -, .       -,  -,      i  -r      i  ^    n 

•  easily   displaced   by  Jackson.     Calhoun  was 
re-elected  Vice-President. 

196.  Jackson's  inauguration  in  1829  closes  this  period, 
as   it  ends   the   time  during  which  a  disruption  of  the 

Democracy  and  Union  by  the  peaceable  withdrawal   of  any 

nationality,    state  was   even  possible.     The  party  which 

had  made  State  sovereignty  its  bulwark  in   1798  was 

now  in  control  of  the  Government  again ;  but  Jackson's 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  161 

proclamation  in  his  first  term,  in  which  he  warned 
South  Carolina  that  "disunion  by  armed  force  is  trea 
son/'  and  that  blood  must  flow  if  the  laws  were  re 
sisted,  speaks  a  very  different  tone  from  the  speculations 
of  Jefferson  on  possible  future  divisions  of  the  United 
States.  And  even  the  sudden  attempt  of  South  Carolina 
to  exercise  independent  action  (§  206),  which  would 
have  been  looked  upon  as  almost  a  right  forty  years 
before,  shows  that  some  interest  dependent  upon  State 
sovereignty  had  taken  alarm  at  the  evident  drift  of 
events,  and  was  anxious  to  lodge  a  claim  to  the  right 
before  it  should  slip  from  its  fingers  forever.  Nullifica 
tion  was  but  the  first  skirmish  between  the  two  hostile 
forces  of  slavery  and  democracy. 

197.  When  the  vast  territory  of  Louisiana  was  ac 
quired  in  1803  the  new  owner  found  slavery  already 
established  there  by  custom  recognized  by 
French  and  Spanish  law.  Congress  tacitly 
ratified  existing  law  by  taking  no  action;  slavery  con 
tinued  legal,  and  spread  further  through  the  territory; 
and  the  State  of  Louisiana  entered  as  a  slave  State  in 
1812.  The  next  State  to  be  carved  out  of  the  territory 
was  Missouri,  admitted  in  1821.  ||  A  Territory,  on  apply 
ing  for  admission  as  a  State,  brings  a  constitution  for 
inspection  by  Congress  ;  and  when  it  was  found  that  the 
new  State  of  Missouri  proposed  to  recognize  and  con 
tinue  slavery,  a  vigorous  opposition  spread  through  the 
north  and  west,  and  carried  most  of  the  senators  and 
representatives  from  those  sections  with  it.  In  the 
house  of  representatives  these  two  sections  had  a  greatly 
superior  number  of  members ;  but,  as  the  number  of 
Northern  and  Southern  States  had  been  kept  about 
equal,  the  compact  southern  vote,  with  one  or  two 


162  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

northern  allies,  generally  retained  control  of  the  senate. 
Admitted  by  the  senate  and  rejected  by  the  house, 
Missouri's  application  hung  suspended  for  several  years, 
until  it  was  successful  by  the  admission  of  Maine,  a 
balancing  Northern  State,  and  by  the  following  arrange- 
The  Missouri  Hient,  known  as  the  Missouri  compromise  of 
compromise.  ^§20 :  Missouri  was  to  enter  as  a  slave 
State;  slavery  was  forever  prohibited  throughout  the 
rest  of  the  Louisiana  purchase  north  of  lat.  36°  30',  the 
main  southern  boundary  of  Missouri;  and,  though 
nothing  was  said  of  the  territory  south  of  the  com 
promise  line,  it  was  understood  that  any  State  formed 
out  of  it  was  to  be  a  slave  State,  if  it  so  wished  (§  249). 
Arkansas  entered  under  this  provision  in  1836. 

198.  The  question  of  slavery  was  thus  set  at  rest  for 
the  present,  though  a  few  agitators  were  roused  to  more 

sectional  diver-  zealous  opposition  to  the  essence  of  slavery 
gence.  itself.  In  the  next  decade  these  agitators 
succeeded  only  in  the  conversion  of  a  few  recruits,  but 
these  recruits  were  the  ones  who  took  up  the  work  at 
the  opening  of  the  next  period  and  never  gave  it  up 
until  slavery  was  ended.  It  is  plain  now,  however,  that 
north  and  south  had  already  drifted  so  far  apart  as  to 
form  two  sections,  and  that,  as  things  stood,  their  drift 
for  the  future  could  only  be  further  apart,  in  spite  of 
the  feeble  tie  furnished  by  the  Missouri  compromise.  It 
became  evident,  during  the  next  forty  years,  that  the 
wants  and  desires  of  these  two  sections  were  so  diver 
gent  that  it  was  impossible  for  one  Government  to  make 
satisfactory  laws  for  both.  The  moving  cause  was  not 
removed  in  1820 ;  one  of  its  effects  was  got  out  of  the 
way  for  the  time,  but  others  were  soon  to  take  its  place. 

199.  The  vast  flood  of  human  beings  which  had  been  pour- 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  163 

ing  westward  for  years  had  now  pretty  well  occupied  the 
territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  while,  on  the 
west  side  of  that  stream,  it  still  showed  a  dis 
position  to  hold  to  the  river  valleys.  The  settled  area 
had  increased  from  240,000  square  miles  in  1790  to  633,- 
000  square  miles  in  1830,  with  an  average  of  20.3  persons 
to  the  square  mile.  There  was  still  a  great  deal  of  In 
dian  territory  in  the  Southern  States  of  Georgia,  Alabama, 
and  Mississippi,  and  in  Florida,  for  the  southern  Indians 
were  among  the  finest  of  their  race ;  they  had  become 
semi-civilized,  and  were  formidable  antagonists  to  the  en 
croaching  white  race.  The  Statas  interested  had  begun 
preparations  for  their  forcible  removal,  in  public  de 
fiance  of  the  attempts  of  the  Federal  Government  to  pro 
tect  the  Indians  (1827) ;  but  the  removal  was  not  com 
pleted  until  1835.  In  the  north,  Wisconsin  and  Michi 
gan,  with  the  northern  halves  of  Illinois  and  Indiana, 
were  still  very  thinly  settled,  but  everything  indicated 
early  increase  of  population.  The  first  lake 
steamboat,  the  "  Walk-in-the- Water,"  had  ap 
peared  at  Detroit  in  1818,  and  the  opening  of  the  Erie 
Canal  added  to  the  number  of  such  vessels.  Lake  Erie 
had  seven  in  1826 ;  and  in  1830,  while  the  only  important 
lake  town,  Detroit,  was  hardly  yet  more  than  a  frontier 
fort,  a  daily  line  of  steamers  was  running  to  it  from 
Buffalo,  carrying  the  increasing  stream  of  emigrants  to 
the  western  territory. 

200.   The  land  system  of  the  United  States  had  much 
to  do  with  the  early  development  of  the  west.     From 
the   first   settlement,  the   universally   recog 
nized  rule  had  been  that  of  absolute  individual 
property  in  land,  with  its  corollary  of  unrestricted  com 
petitive  or  "  rack  "  rents  :  and  this  rule  was  accepted  fully 


164  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

in  the  national  land  system,  whose  basis  was  reported  by 
Jefferson,  as  chairman  of  a  committee  of  the  Confedera 
tion  Congress  (1785).  The  public  lands  were  to  be  di 
vided  into  hundreds  of  ten  miles  square,  each  containing 
one  hundred  mile-square  plots.  The  hundred  was  called 
a  "  township,"  and  was  afterwards  reduced  to  six  miles 
square,  of  thirty-six  mile-square  plots  of  640  acres  each. 
From  time  to  time  principal  meridians  and  east  and  west 
base  lines  have  been  run,  and  townships  have  been  deter 
mined  by  their  relations  to  these  lines.  The  sections 
(plots)  have  been  subdivided,  but  the  transfer  describes 
each  parcel  from  the  survey  map,  as  in  the  case  of  "the 
southwest  quarter  of  section  20,  township  30,  north,  range 
1  east  of  the  third  principal  meridian."  The  price  fixed 
in  1790  as  a  minimum  was  two  dollars  per  acre ;  it  has 
tended  to  decrease,  and  no  effort  has  ever  been  made  to 
gain  a  revenue  from  it.  When  the  nation  acquired  its 
western  territory  it  secured  its  title  to  the  soil,  and  always 
made  it  a  fundamental  condition  of  the  admission  of  a 
new  State  that  it  should  not  tax  United  States  lands. 
To  compensate  the  new  States  for  the  freedom  of  unsold 
public  lands  from  taxation,  one  township  in  each  thirty- 
six  was  reserved  to  them  for  educational  purposes  ;  and 
the  excellent  public  school  systems  of  the  Western  States 
have  been  founded  on  this  provision.  The  cost  of  ob 
taining  a  quarter  section  (160  acres),  under  the  still 
later  homestead  system  of  granting  lands  to  actual  set 
tlers,  has  come  to  be  only  about  twenty-six  dollars ;  the 
interest  on  this,  at  six  per  cent.,  represents  an  annual 
rent  of  one  cent  per  acre  —  making  this,  says  F.  A.  Walker, 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  "no-rent  land"  of  the  econo 
mists. 

201.   The  bulk  of  the  early  westward  migration  was  of 


DEMOCRACY  AND  NATIONALITY.  165 

home  production  j  the  great  immigration  from  Europe  did 
not   begin   until   about   1847  (§   236).     The 

11  ii  ii  t       i  '  Immigration. 

west  as  well  as  the  east  thus  had  its  institu 
tions  fixed  before  being  called  upon  to  absorb  an  enor 
mous  foreign  element. 


166  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


VIII. 

INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  SECTIONAL 
DIVEEGENCE. 

1829-50. 

202.  THE  eight  years  after  1829  have  been  called  "the 
reign  of  Andrew  Jackson " ;  his  popularity,  his  long 

New  political  struggle  for  the  presidency,  and  his  feeling  of 
methods,  his  official  ownership  of  the  subordinate  offices 
gave  to  his  administration  at  least  an  appearance  of 
Caesarism.  But  it  was  strictly  constitutional  Csesarism ; 
the  restraints  of  written  law  were  never  violated,  though 
the  methods  adopted  within  the  law  were  new  to  national 
politics.  Since  about  1800  State  politics  in  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  had  been  noted  for  the  systematic  use 
of  the  offices  and  for  the  merciless  manner  in  which  the 
office-holder  was  compelled  to  work  for  the  party  which 
kept  him  in  place.  The  presence  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  politicians  in  Jackson's  cabinet  taught  him 
to  use  the  same  system.  Removals,  except  for  cause,  had 
been  almost  unknown  before ;  but  under  Jackson  men 
were  removed  almost  exclusively  for  the  purpose  of 
installing  some  more  serviceable  party  tool ;  and  a  clean 
sweep  was  made  in  the  civil  service.  Other  parties 
adopted  the  system,  and  it  has  remained  the  rule  at  a 
change  of  administration  until  comparatively  recent  years 
(§  323). 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  167 

203.  The  system  brought  with  it  a  semi-military  reor 
ganization   of   parties.      Hitherto   nominations   for   the 
more  important  offices  had  been  made  mainly      The  new 
by  legislative  caucuses ;  candidates  for  Presi-  organization  of 
dent   and  Vice-President  were  nominated  by 
caucuses  of  Congressmen,  and  candidates  for  the  higher 
State  offices  by  caucuses  of  the  State  legislatures.     Late 
in  the  preceding  period  "  conventions  "  of  delegates  from 
the  members  of  the  party  in  the  State  occur  in  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania ;  and  in  1831-32  this  became  the  rule 
for  presidential  nominations.     It  rapidly  developed  into 
systematic  State,  county,  and  city  "  conventions  " ;  and 
the  result  was  the  appearance  of  that  complete  political 
machinery,  the  American  political  party,  with  its  local 
organizations,  and  its   delegates   to   county,  State,  and 
national  conventions.     The  Democratic   machinery  was 
the  first  to  appear,  in  Jackson's  second  term  (1833-37). 
Its  workers  were  paid  in  offices,  or  hopes  of  office,  so  that 
it  was  said  to  be  built  on  the  "  cohesive  power  of  public 
plunder";  but  its  success  was  immediate  and  brilliant. 
The  opposing  party,  the  Whig  party,  had  no  chance  of 
victory  in  1836 ;   and  its  complete  overthrow  drove  its 
leaders  into  the  organization  of  a  similar  machinery  of 
their  own,  which  scored  its  first  success  in  1840.     Since 
that  time  these  strange  bodies,  unknown  to  the  law,  have 
governed   the   country   by   turns;   and  their   enormous 
growth  has  steadily  made   the   organization  of  a  third 
piece  of  such  machinery  more  difficult  or  hopeless. 

204.  The  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  hardly  been 
heard  of  in  politics  until  the  new  Democratic  organization 
came  into  hostile  contact  with   it.     A  semi-    Bank  of  the 
official  demand  upon  it  for  a  political  appoint-  United  states. 
ment  was  met  by  a  refusal;   and  the   party  managers 


168  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

called  Jackson's  attention  to  an  institution  which  he 
could  not  but  dislike  the  more  he  considered  it.  His 
first  message  spoke  of  it  in  unfriendly  terms,  and  every 
succeeding  message  brought  a  more  open  attack.  The 
old  party  of  Adams  and  Clay  had  by  this  time  taken 
the  name  of  Whigs,  probably  from  the  notion 
y'  that  they  were  struggling  against  "  the  reign 
of  Andrew  Jackson,"  and  they  adopted  the  cause  of  the 
bank  with  eagerness.  The  bank  charter  did  not  expire 
until  1836,  but  in  1832  Clay  brought  up  a  bill  for  a  new 
charter.  It  was  passed  and  vetoed  (§  113)  ;  and  the 
Whigs  went  into  the  presidential  election  of  that  year 
on  the  veto.  They  were  beaten;  Jackson  was  re-elected; 
and  the  bank  party  could  never  again  get  a  majority  in 
the  house  of  representatives  for  the  charter.  The  insist 
ence  of  the  President  on  the  point  that  the  charter  was  a 
"  monopoly  "  bore  weight  with  the  people.  But  the  Pres 
ident  could  not  obtain  a  majority  in  the  senate.  He 
determined  to  take  a  step  which  would  give  him  an 
initiative,  and  which  his  opponents  could  not  induce  both 
houses  to  unite  in  overriding  or.  punishing.  Taking 
Removal  of  the  advantage  of  the  provision  that  the  secre- 
deposits.  tarv  of  the  treasury  might  order  the  public 
funds  to  be  deposited  elsewhere  than  in  the  bank  or  its 
branches  (§  184),  he  directed  the  secretary  to  deposit  all 
the  public  funds  elsewhere.  Thus  deprived  of  its  great 
source  of  dividends,  the  bank  fell  into  difficulties,  became 
a  State  bank  after  1836,  and  then  went  into  bankruptcy. 
205.  All  the  political  conflicts  of  Jackson's  terms  of 
office  were  close  and  bitter.  Loose  in  his  ideas  before 
1829,  Jackson  shows  a  steady  tendency  to  adopt  the 
strictest  construction  of  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  except  in  such  official  perquisites  as  the  offices. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  169 

He    grew  into   strong   opposition   to   all   traces   of  the 
"American  system,"  and  vetoed  bills  for  in- 

J  Opposition 

ternal  improvements  unsparingly;  and  his  to  the  "Amer- 
feeling  of  dislike  to  all  terms  of  protection  is  ican  systemi" 
as  evident,  though  he  took  more  care  not  to  make  it 
too  public.  There  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that 
his  drift  was  the  work  of  a  strong  school  of  leaders 
— Van  Buren,  Benton,  Livingston,  Taney,  Woodbury, 
Cass,  Marcy,  and  others  — who  developed  the  policy  of 
the  party,  and  controlled  it  until  the  great  changes 
of  parties  about  1850  took  their  power  from  them. 
At  all  events,  some  persistent  influence  made  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  of  1830-50  the  most  consistent  and  suc 
cessful  party  which  had  thus  far  appeared  in  the  United 
States. 

206.  Calhoun  and  Jackson  were  of  the  same  stock  — 
Scottish-Irish  —  much  alike  in  appearance  and  character 
istics,  the  former  representing  the  trained  caihounand 
and  educated  logic  of  the  race,  the  latter  its  Jackson. 
instincts  and  passions.  Jackson  was  led  to  break  off  his 
friendly  relations  with  Calhoun  in  1830,  and  he  had  been 
led  to  do  so  more  easily  because  of  the  appearance  of  the 
doctrine  of  nullification,  which  was  generally  attributed, 
correctly  enough,  to  the  authorship  of  Calhoun.  Assert 
ing,  as  the  Eepublican  party  of  1798  had  done,  the 
sovereign  powers  of  each  State,  Calhoun  held  that,  as  a 
means  of  avoiding  secession  and  violent  struggle  upon 
every  occasion  of  the  passage  of  an  Act  of  Congress 
which  should  seem  unconstitutional  to  any  State,  the 
State  might  properly  suspend  or  "nullify"  the  operation 
of  the  law  within  its  jurisdiction,  in  order 

.,  ...  .  Nullification. 

to   protect   its   citizens   against    oppression. 

Webster,  of  Massachusetts,  and   Hayne,  of  South  Caro-. 


170  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

lina,  debated  the  question  in  the  senate  in  1830,  and  the 
supporters  of  each  claimed  a  virtual  victory  for  their 
leader.  The  passage  of  the  Tariff  Act  of  1832,  which 
organized  and  systematized  the  protective  system,  forced 
the  Calhoun  party  into  action.  A  State  convention  in 
South  Carolina  declared  the  Tariff  Act  null  and  not  law 
or  binding  on  the  people  of  the  State,  and  made  ready  to 
enforce  the  declaration. 

207.  But  the  time  was  past  when  the  power  of  a  single 
State  could  withdraw  it  from  the  Union.     The   Presi 
dent  issued  a  proclamation,  warning  the  people  of  South 
Carolina  against  any  attempt  to  carry  out  the  ordinance 
of  nullification  ;  he  ordered  a  naval  force  to  take  posses 
sion  of  Charleston  harbor  to  collect  the  duties  under  the 
Act ;  he  called  upon  Congress  for  additional  executive 
powers,  and  Congress  passed  what  nulliners  called  the 
"bloody  bill,"  putting  the  land  naval  forces  at  the  disposal 
of  the  President  for  the  collection  of  duties  against  "  un 
lawful  combinations  "  ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  announced, 
privately  and  profanely,  his  intention  of  making  Calhoun 
the  first  victim  of  any  open  conflict.    Affairs  looked  so 
threatening  that  an  unofficial  meeting  of  "  leading  milli 
ners  "  agreed  to  suspend  the  operation  of  the  ordinance 
until  Congress  should  adjourn;   whence  it  derived  the 
right  to  suspend  has  never  been  stated. 

208.  The  President  had  already  asked   Congress   to 
reduce  the  duties  ;  and  many  Democratic  members  of  Con 
gress,  who  had  yielded  to  the  popular  clamor  for  Protec 
tion,  were  very  glad  to  use  the  "  crisis  "  as  an  excuse  for 

now  voting  against  it.    A  compromise  Tariff 

Act,  scaling  down  all  duties  over  twenty  per 

cent,  by  one-tenth  of  the  surplus  each  year,  so  as  to  bring 

duties  to  a  uniform  rate  of  twenty  per  cent,  in  1843, 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  171 

was  introduced  by  Clay  and  became  law.  Calhoun  and 
his  followers  claimed  this  as  all  that  the  nullification 
ordinance  had  aimed  at ;  and  the  ordinance  was  formally 
repealed.  But  nullification  had  received  its  death-blow ; 
even  those  southern  leaders  who  maintained  the  right 
of  secession  refused  to  recognize  the  right  of  a  State  to 
remain  in  the  Union  while  nullifying  its  laws  ;  and, 
when  protection  was  reintroduced  by  the  tariff  of  1842, 
nullification  was  hardly  thought  of. 

209.  All  the  internal  conditions  of  the  United  States 
were  completely  altered  by  the  introduction  of  railways. 
For   twenty  years  past   the  Americans   had  The  iocomotive 
been  pushing  in  every  direction  which  offered      engine. 

a  hope  of  the  means  of  reconciling  vast  territory  with 
enormous  population.  Stephenson's  invention  of  the 
locomotive  came  just  in  time,  and  Jackson's  two  terms 
of  office  marked  the  outburst  of  modern  American  life. 
English  engines  were  brought  over  in  1829,  and  served 
as  models  for  a  year  or  two ;  and  then  the  lighter  forms 
of  locomotives,  better  suited  to  American  conditions, 
were  introduced.  The  miles  of  railroad  were  23  in  1830, 
1098  in  1835,  nearly  2000  in  1840,  and  thereafter  they 
about  doubled  every  five  years  until  1860. 

210.  A   railway  map   of   1840  shows  a  fragmentary 
system,  designed  mainly  to  fill  the  gaps  left  by  the  means 
of  communication  in  use  in  1830.    One  or  two 

,         .     -,.  i        i       •     -         .1  j?  Railways  of  1840. 

short  lines  run  back  into  the  country  trom 
Savannah  and  Charleston ;  another  runs  north  along  the 
coast  from  Wilmington  to  Baltimore ;  several  lines  con 
nect  New  York  with  Washington  and  other  points  ;  and 
short  lines  elsewhere  mark  the  openings  which  needed 
to  be  filled  at  once  —  a  number  in  New  England  and  the 
middle  States,  three  in  Ohio  and  Michigan,  and  three  in 


172  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Louisiana.     Year  after  year  new  inventions  came  in  to 
increase  and  aid  this  development.    The  an 
thracite  coal  of  the  middle  States  had  been 
known  since  1790  (§  19),  but  no  means  had  been  de 
vised  to  put  the  refractory  agent  to  work.     It  was  now 
successfully  applied  to  railroads  (1836),  and 
to  the  manufacture  of  iron  (1837).     Hitherto 
wood  had  been  the  best  fuel  for  iron  making ;  now  the 
States  which  relied  on  wood  were  driven  out  of  com 
petition,  and  production  was  restricted  to  the  States  in 
which  nature  had  placed  coal  alongside  of  iron.     Steam 
ocean  naviga-    navigation  across  the  Atlantic  was  established 
tion.        in  1838.     The  telegraph  came  next,  Morse's 
The  telegraph.  line  being  erected  in  1844.     The  spread  of  the 
railway  system  brought  with  it,  as  a  natural  develop 
ment,  the  rise  of  the  American  system  of  express  com 
panies,    whose    first    phases    of    individual    enterprise 
appeared  in  1839.     No  similar  period  in  American  his 
tory  is  so  extraordinary  for  material  development  as  the 
decade  1830-40.     At  its  beginning  the  country  was  an 
overgrown  type  of  colonial  life ;  at  its  end  American  life 
had  been  shifted  to  entirely  new  lines,  which  it  has  since 
followed.     Modern  American  history  had  burst  in  with 
the  explosiveness  of  an  Arctic  summer. 

211.  If  the  steamboat  had  aided  western  development, 
the  railway  made  it  a  freshet.     Cities  and  States  grew 
Western  settle-  as  if  the  oxygen  of  their  surroundings  had 
ment.       been  suddenly  increased.     The  steamboat  in 
fluenced  the  railway,  and  the  railway  gave  the  steam 
boat  new  powers.     Vacant  places  in  the  States  east  of 
the  Mississippi  were  filling  up ;  the  long  lines  of  emi 
grant  wagons  gave  way  to  the  new  and  better  methods 
of  transport ;   and  new  grades  of  land  were  made  ac- 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  173 

cessible.  Chicago  was  but  a  frontier  fort  in  1832; 
within  a  half-dozen  years  it  was  a  nourishing  town,  with 
eight  steamers  connecting  it  with  Buffalo,  and  dawning 
ideas  of  its  future  development  of  railway  connections. 
The  maps  change  from  decade  to  decade,  as  mapmakers 
hasten  to  insert  new  cities  which  have  sprung  up.  Two 
new  States,  Arkansas  and  Michigan,  were  ad-  A 

Admission  of 

mitted  (1836  and  1837).     The  population  of  Arkansas  and 
Ohio  leaps  from  900,000  to  1,500,000,  that  of     Michigan> 
Michigan  from  30,000  to  212,000,  and  that  of  the  country 
from  13,000,000  to  17,000,000,  between  1830  and  1840. 

212.  With  the  change  of  material  surroundings  and 
possibilities  came  a  steady  amelioration  of  social  con 
ditions  and  a  development  of  social  ideals.  Socia|  condi. 
Such  features  of  the  past  as  imprisonment  for  tions- 
debt  and  the  cruel  indifference  of  old  methods  of  dealing 
with  crime  began  to  disappear ;  the  time  was  past  when 
a  State  could  use  an  abandoned  copper-mine  as  its  State 
prison.  The  domestic  use  of  gas  and  anthracite  coal, 
the  introduction  of  expensive  aqueducts  for  pure  water, 
and  the  changing  life  of  the  people  forced  changes  in  the 
interior  and  exterior  of  American  dwellings.  Wood  was 
still  the  common  building  material ;  imitations  of  Greek 
architecture  still  retained  their  vogue ;  but  the  interiors 
were  models  of  comfort  in  comparison  with  the  houses 
even  of  1810.  In  the  "  new "  regions  this  was  not  yet 
the  case,  and  here  social  restraints  were  still  so  few  that 
society  seemed  to  be  reduced  almost  to  its  primitive 
elements.  Western  steamers  reeked  with  gambling, 
swindling,  duelling,  and  every  variety  of  vice.  Public 
law  was  almost  suspended  in  some  regions ;  and  organ 
ized  associations  of  counterfeiters  and  horse-thieves 
terrorized  whole  sections  of  country.  But  this  state  of 


174  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

affairs  was  altogether  temporary,  as  well  as  limited  in 
its  area ;  the  older  and  more  densely  settled  States  had 
been  well  prepared  for  the  change  and  had  never  lost 
command  of  the  social  forces,  and  the  process  of  settling 
down  went  on,  even  in  the  newer  States,  with  far  more 
rapidity  than  could  reasonably  have  been  expected. 
Those  who  took  part  in  the  movements  of  population 
in  1830-40  had  been  trained  under  the  rigid  forms  of 
the  previous  American  life;  and  these  soon  reasserted 
themselves.  The  rebound  was  over  before  1847,  and  the 
Western  States  were  then  as  well  prepared  to  receive 
and  digest  the  great  immigration  which  followed  as  the 
older  States  would  have  been  in  1830. 

213.    A  distinct  American  literature   dates  from  this 
period.     Most  of  the  publications  in  the  United  States 

were  still  cheap  reprints  of  foreign  works; 

but  native  productions  no  longer  followed 
foreign  models  with  servility.  Between  1830  and  1840 
Whittier,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Poe,  Hawthorne,  Emer 
son,  Bancroft,  and  Prescott  joined  the  advance-guard  of 
American  writers — Bryant,  Dana,  Halleck,  Drake,  Irving, 
and  Cooper;  and  even  those  writers  who  had  already 
made  their  place  in  literature  showed  the  influence  of 
new  conditions  by  their  growing  tendency  to  look  less 
to  foreign  models  and  methods  than  before  1830.  Popu 
lar  education  was  improved.  The  new  States  had  from 
the  first  endeavored  to  secure  the  best  possible  system 
of  common  schools.  The  attempt  came  naturally  from 
the  political  instincts  of  the  class  from  which  the  mi 
gration  came ;  but  the  system  which  resulted  was  to  be  of 
Common  school  incalculable  service  during  the  years  to  come, 
system.  Their  absolute  democracy  and  their  universal 
use  of  the  English  language  have  made  the  common 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  175 

schools  most  successful  machines  for  converting  the  raw 
material  of  immigration  into  American  citizens.  This 
supreme  benefit  is  the  basis  of  the  system  and  the  reason 
for  its  existence  and  development,  but  its  incidental 
benefit  of  educating  the  people  has  been  beyond  cal 
culation.  It  was  an  odd  symptom  of  the 

,        ,  ,  .  Newspapers. 

general  change  that  American  newspapers 
took  a  new  form  during  these  ten  years.  The  old 
"blanket-sheet"  newspaper,  cumbrous  to  handle  and 
slow  in  all  its  ways,  met  its  first  rival  in  the  type  of 
newspaper  which  appeared  first  in  New  York  city,  in 
the  Sun,  the  Herald,  and  the  Tribune  (1833,  1835,  and 
1841).  Swift  and  energetic  in  gathering  news,  and 
fearless,  sometimes  reckless,  in  stating  it,  they  brought 
into  American  life,  with  very  much  that  is  evil,  a  great 
preponderance  of  good. 

214.   The  chaos  into  which  a  part  of  American  society 
had  been  thrown  had  a  marked  effect  on  the  financial 
institutions   of  the   country,  which  went  to 
pieces  before  it  for  a  time.     It  had  not  been 
meant  to  make  the  public  lands  of  the  United  States  a 
source  of  revenue  so  much  as  a  source  of  development. 
The  sales  had  touched  their  high-water  mark  during  the 
speculative  year   1819,  when   receipts   from   them   had 
amounted   to  $3,274,000;  in  other  years   they   seldom 
went   above    $2,000,000.     When    the    railroad   set  the 
stream  of  migration  moving  faster  than  ever,  and  cities 
began  to  grow  like  mushrooms,  it  was  natual  that  specu 
lation  in  land  should  feel  the  effects.     Sales 
rose  to  $3,200,000  in  1831,  to  $4,000,000  in    Speculation- 
1833,   to  $5,000,000  in   1834,   to   $15,000,000  in   1835, 
and  to   $25,000,000   in    1836.     In   1835   the   President 
announced  to  Congress  that  the  public  debt  was  extin- 


176  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

guished,  and  that  some  way  of  dealing  with  the  surplus 
should  be  found.  Calhoun's  proposal,  that  after  the 
year  1836  all  revenue  above  $5,000,000  should  be  divided 
among  the  States  as  a  loan,  was  adopted,  though  only 
one  such  loan  was  made.  The  States  had  already  taken 
a  hand  in  the  general  speculation  by  beginning  works  of 
public  improvement.  Foreign,  particularly  English, 
capital  was  abundant ;  and  States  which  had  been  accus 
tomed  to  seels  a  dozen  times  over  a  tax  of  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  now  began  to  negotiate  loans  of  millions 
of  dollars  and  to  appropriate  the  proceeds  to  the  digging 
of  canals  and  the  construction  of  railroads.  Their  enter 
prises  were  badly  conceived  and  badly  managed,  and 
only  added  to  the  confusion  when  the  crash  came.  If 
the  Federal  Government  and  the  States  felt  that  they 
were  rich,  the  imaginations  of  individuals  ran  riot. 
Every  one  wanted  to  buy;  prices  rose,  and  every  one 
was  growing  rich  on  paper.  The  assessed  value  of  real 
estate  in  New  York  city  in  1832  was  $104,000,000 ;  in 
1736  it  had  grown  to  $253,000,000.  In  Mobile  the 
assessed  value  rose  from  $1,000,000  to  $27,000,000. 
Fictitious  values  were  the  rule  everywhere. 

215.  When  Jackson  (1833)  ordered  the  Government 
revenues  to  be  deposited  elsewhere  than  in  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  (§  204),  there  was  no 
Government  agent  to  receive  them.  The 
secretary  of  the  treasury  selected  banks  at  various  points 
in  which  the  revenue  should  be  deposited  by  the  collect 
ing  officers ;  but  these  banks  were  organized  under 
charters  from  their  States,  as  were  all  banks  except  that 
of  the  United  States.  The  theory  of  the  dominant 
party  denied  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  to 
charter  a  bank,  and  the  States  had  not  yet  learned  how 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


to  deal  with  such  institutions.  Their  grants  of  bank 
charters  had  been  based  on  ignorance,  intrigue,  favorit 
ism,  or  corruption,  and  the  banks  were  utterly  unregu 
lated.  The  democratic  feeling  was  that  the  privilege  of 
forming  banking  corporations  should  be  open  to  all  citi 
zens,  and  it  soon  became  so.  Moreover  it  was  not  until 
after  the  crash  that  New  York  began  the  system  of  com 
pelling  such  deposits  as  would  really  secure  circulation, 
which  was  long  afterward  further  developed  into  the  pres 
ent  national  bank  system.  In  most  of  the  States  banks 
could  be  freely  organized  with  or  without  tangible  capi 
tal,  and  their  notes  could  be  sent  to  the  West  for  the 
purchase  of  Government  lands,  which  needed  to  be  held 
but  a  month  or  two  to  gain  a  handsome  profit.  "  Wild 
cat  banks  "  sprang  up  all  over  the  country,  and  the  "  pet 
banks,"  as  those  chosen  for  the  deposit  of  Government 
revenues  were  called  by  their  rivals,  went  into  specula 
tion  as  eagerly  as  the  banks  which  hardly  pretended  to 
have  capital. 

216.  The  Democratic  theory  denied  the  power  of  Con 
gress  to  make  anything  but  gold  or  silver  legal  tender. 
There  have  been  "paper-money  heresies"  in  The  "specie 
the  party  but  there  were  none  such  among  circular." 
the  new  school  of  Democratic  leaders  which  came  in  in 
1829 ;  they  were  "  hard-money  men."  In  1836  Jackson's 
secretary  of  the  treasury  ordered  land  agents  to  take  noth 
ing  in  payment  for  lands  except  gold  or  silver.  In  the 
following  spring  full  effects  of  the  order  became  evident ; 
they  fell  on  the  administration  of  Van  Buren,  Jackson's 
successor.  Van  Buren  had  been  Jackson's  secretary  of 
state,  the  representative  man  of  the  new  Democratic 
school,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  opposition,  the  evil 
genius  of  the  Jackson  administration ;  and  it  seemed  to 


178  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

the  Whigs  poetic  justice  that  he  should  bear  the  weight 
of  his  predecessor's  errors.  The  "specie  circular" 
turned  the  tide  of  paper  back  to  the  east,  and,  when  it 
was  presented  for  payment  most  of  the  banks  suspended 
specie  payment  with  hardly  a  struggle.  There  was  no 
longer  a  thought  of  buying ;  every  one  wanted  to  sell ; 
and  prices  ran  down  with  a  rapidity  even  more  startling 
than  that  with  which  they  had  risen.  Failures,  to  an 
extent  and  on  a  scale  unprecedented  in  the  United  States, 
made  up  the  "  panic  of  1837."  Many  of  the 
States  had  left  their  bonds  in  the  hands  of 
their  agents,  and,  on  the  failure  of  the  latter,  found  that 
the  bonds  had  been  hypothecated  or  disposed  of,  so  that 
the  States  got  no  return  from  them  except  a  debt  which 
was  to  them  enormous.  Saddled  suddenly  with  such  a 
burden,  and  unable  even  to  pay  interest,  many 
of  the  States  "  repudiated  "  their  obligations  ; 
and  repudiation  was  made  successful  by  the  fact  that  a 
State  cannot  be  sued  except  by  its  own  consent  (§  65). 
Even  the  Federal  Government  felt  the  strain,  for  its  rev 
enues  were  locked  up  in  suspended  banks.  A  little  more 
than  a  year  after  Congress  had  authorized  the  distribution 
of  its  surplus  revenues  among  the  States,  Van  Buren  was 
forced  to  call  it  into  special  session  to  provide  some  relief 
for  the  Government  itself. 

217.    Van  Buren   held   manfully  to  the  strictest  con 
struction  of  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government.     He 
insisted  that  the  panic  would  best  right  itself  without 
Government  interference,  and,  after  a  four  years'  strug 
gle,  he  succeeded  in  making  the  "  sub-treasury  scheme  " 
sub-treasury    law  (1840).     It  cut  off  all  connection  of  the 
scheme.       Government  with   banks,  putting   collecting 
and  disbursing  officers  under  bonds  to  hold  money  safely 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  179 

and  to  transfer  it  under  orders  from  the  treasury,  and  re 
stricting  payments  to  or  by  the  United  States  to  gold 
and  silver.  Its  passage  had  been  proceeded  by  another 
commercial  crisis  (1839),  more  limited  in  its  field,  but 
more  discouraging  to  the  people.  It  is  true  that  Jackson, 
in  dealing  with  the  finances,  had  "  simply  smashed  things," 
leaving  his  successor  to  repair  damages ;  but  it  is  far  from 
certain  that  this  was  not  the  best  way  available  at  the  time. 
The  wisest  scheme  of  financial  reform  would  have  had 
small  chance  of  success  with  the  land-jobbers  in  Congress  j 
and  Van  Buren's  firmness  found  the  way  out  of  the  chaos. 
218.  Van  Buren's  firmness  was  unpopular;  and  the 
Whig  party  now  adopted  methods  which  were  popular, 
if  somewhat  demagogical.  It  nominated 

_     .   .       ,  ..        Election  of  1840. 

Harrison  in  1840;  it  contrasted  his  homely 
frontier  virtues  with  Van  Buren's  "  ostentatious  indiffer 
ence  to  the  misfortunes  of  the  .people  "  and  with  his  sup 
posed  luxury  of  his  life  in  the  White  House ;  and,  after 
the  first  of  the  modern  "  campaigns  "  of  mass  meetings 
and  processions,  Harrison  was  elected.  He  died  soon 
after  his  inauguration  (1841),  and  the  Vice-President, 
Tyler,  became  President.  Tyler  was  of  the  extreme 
Calhoun  school,  which  had  shown  some  disposition  to 
grant  to  Van  Buren  a  support  which  it  had  refused  to 
Jackson ;  and  the  Whigs  had  nominated  Tyler  to  retain 
his  faction  with  them.  Now  he  was  the  nominal  leader  of 
the  party,  while  his  politics  were  opposite  to  theirs,  and 
the  real  leader  of  the  party,  Clay,  was  ready  to  force  a 
quarrel  upon  him.  The  quarrel  took  place  ;  the  Whig 
majority  in  Congress  was  not  large  enough  to  pass  any 
measures  over  Tyler's  veto ;  and  the  first  two  years  of  his 
administration  were  passed  in  barren  conflict  with  his 
party.  The  "sub-treasury"  law  was  repealed  (1841)  ; 


180  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


the  tariff  of  1842  introduced  a  modified  protection ;  and 

there  the  Whigs  were  forced  to  stop.     Their  dissensions 

made  democratic  success  comparatively  easy, 

Tariff  of  1842.  „,  J  J ' 

and  Tyler  had  the  support  of  a  Democratic 
house  behind  him  during  the  last  two  years  of  his  term. 

219.  The  success  of  the  Democratic  machinery,  and 
the  reflex  of  its  temporary  check  in  1840,  with  the  influ 
ences   brought  to  bear  on  it  by  the  returning  Calhoun 
faction,  were  such  as  to  take  the  control  of  the  party  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  leaders  who  had  formed  it.     They 
had  had  high  regard  for  political  principle,  even  though 
they  were  willing  to  use  doubtful  methods  for  its  propa 
gation;  these  methods  had  now  brought  out  new  men, 
who  looked  mainly  to  success,  and  to  close  connection 
with  the  controlling  political  element  of  the  south  as 
the    easiest   means   of    attaining    success.      When  the 
Democratic  convention  of  1844  met  it  was  expected  to 
renominate   Van   Buren.     A  majority  of  the   delegates 
had  been  sent  there  for  that  purpose,  but  many  of  them 
would  have  been  glad  to  be  prevented  from  doing  so. 
They  allowed  a  resolution  to  be  passed  making  a  two- 
thirds  vote  necessary  for  nomination;  Van  Buren  was 
unable  to  command  so  many  votes ;  and,  when  his  name 
was  withdrawn,  Polk  was  nominated.     The  Whigs  nomi 
nated  Clay. 

220.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  abolitionist  move 
ment   in  the  United   States,   the  establishment   of  the 

Abolitionist  Liberator  ( 1831)  and  of  the  American  Anti- 
movement.  Slavery  Society  (1833)  "abolition"  had 
meant  gradual  abolition;  it  was  a  wish  rather  than  a 
purpose.  Garrison  called  for  immediate  abolition.  The 
basis  of  the  American  system  was  in  the  reserved  rights 
of  the  States,  and  slavery  rested  on  their  will,  which 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  181 

was  not  likely  to  be  changed.  But  the  cry  was  kept  up. 
The  mission  of  the  abolitionists  was  to  force  the  people 
to  think  of  the  question ;  and,  in  spite  of  riots,  assaults, 
and  persecution  of  every  kind,  they  fulfilled  it  manfully. 
It  was  inevitable  that,  as  the  northern  people  were 
brought  unwillingly  to  think  of  the  question,  they  should 
look  with  new  eyes  on  many  of  its  phases ;  while  in  the 
south  many  who  might  dislike  slavery  were  disposed  to 
resist  the  interferences  with  State  rights  which  the  new 
proposal  involved.  In  truth,  slavery  was  more  and  more 
out  of  harmony  with  the  new  economic  conditions  which 
were  rapidly  taking  complete  control  of  the  north  and 
west,  but  had  hardly  been  felt  in  the  south.  Thus  the 
two  sections,  north  and  south,  were  more  and  more  dis 
posed  to  take  opposite  views  of  everything  in  which 
slavery  was  involved,  and  it  had  a  faculty  of  involving 
itself  in  almost  everything.  The  status  of  slavery  in 
the  Territories  had  been  settled  in  1820  (§  197)  ;  that  of 
slavery  in  the  States  had  been  settled  by  the  Constitu 
tion  ;  but  even  in  minor  questions  the  intrusive  element 
had  to  be  reckoned  with.  The  abolitionists  sent  their 
documents  through  the  mails,  and  the  south  wished  the 
Federal  Government  to  interfere  and  stop  the  practice. 
The  abolitionists  persisted  in  petitioning  Congress  for 
the  passage  of  various  measures  which  Congress  re 
garded  as  utterly  unconstitutional;  and  the  disposition 
of  Congress  to  deny  or  regulate  the  right  of  petition  in 
such  matters  excited  the  indignation  of  northern  men 
who  had  no  sympathy  with  abolition.  But  the  first 
occasion  on  which  the  views  of  the  two  sections  came 
into  flat  contrast  was  on  the  question  of  the  annexation 
of  Texas. 

221.    The   United   States   had  had  a  vague  claim  to 


182  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Texas  until  1819,  when  the  claim  was  surrendered  to 
Spain  in  part  compensation  for  Florida.  On 
the  revolt  of  Mexico,  Texas  became  a  part  of 
that  republic.  It  was  colonized  by  Americans,  mainly 
southerners  and  slave-holders,  and  seceded  from  Mexico 
in  1835,  defeating  the  Mexican  armies  and  establishing 
its  independence.  Southern  politicians  desired  its  an 
nexation  to  the  United  States  for  many  reasons.  Its 
people  were  kindred  to  them ;  its  soil  would  widen  the 
area  of  slavery ;  and  its  territory,  it  was  hoped,  could  be 
divided  into  several  States,  to  reinforce  the  southern 
column  in  the  senate.  People  in  the  north  were  either 
indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  proposal ;  Van  Buren  had 
declared  against  it,  and  his  action  was  the  secret  reason 
for  his  defeat  in  the  Democratic  convention.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  were  indications  that  the 
joint  occupation  of  the  Oregon  country  (§  192) 
could  not  last  much  longer.  American  immigration  into 
it  had  begun,  while  the  Hudson's  Bay  company,  the  Eng 
lish  tenant  of  the  soil,  was  the  natural  enemy  of  immi 
gration.  To  carry  the  sentiment  of  both  sections,  the 
two  points  were  coupled ;  and  the  Democratic  convention 
declared  for  the  reannexation  of  Texas  and  the  reoccupa- 
tion  of  Oregon. 

222.    One   of   the  cardinal   methods   of   the   political 

abolitionists  was  to  nominate  candidates  of  their   own 

against  a  doubtful  friend,  even  though   this 

*arty>   secured  the  election  of  an  open  enemy.  Clay's 

efforts  to  guard  his  condemnation  of  the  Texas  annexation 

project  were  just  enough  to  push  the  Liberty  party,  the 

political  abolitionists,  into  voting   for  candi- 

Election  of  1844.     ,     ,  „  , ,  •        -vr          XT      1  i 

dates  of  their  own  in  New  York ;  on  a  close 
vote  their  loss  was  enough  to  throw  the  electoral  votes 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  183 

of  that  State  to  Polk,  and  its  votes  decided  the  result. 
Polk  was  elected  (November,  1844)  ;   and  Texas  was  an 
nexed  to  the  United  States  in  the  following   Admission  of 
spring.      At  the   next   meeting   of  Congress       Texas- 
(1845)  Texas  was  admitted  as  a  State. 

223.  West  of  Texas  the  northern  prolongation  of  Mex 
ico  ran  right  athwart  the  westward  movement  of  Ameri 
can  population ;  and,  though  the  movement  had  not  yet 
reached  the  barrier,  the  Polk  administration  desired  fur 
ther  acquisitions  from  Mexico.     The  western  boundary 
of  Texas  was  undefined ;  a  strip  of  territory  claimed  by 
Texas  was  settled  exclusively  by  Mexicans ;  but  the  Polk 
administration  directed  Taylor,  the  American  commander 
in  Texas,  to  cross  the  Nueces  river  and  seize  the  disputed 
territory.    Collisions  with  Mexican  troops  followed ;  they 
were  beaten  in  the  battles  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la 
Palma,  and  were  chased  across  the  Eio  Grande.     Taylor 
followed,  took  the  city  of  Monterey,  and  established  him 
self  far  within  northern  Mexico. 

224.  On  the   news   of  the   first  bloodshed,  Congress 
declared  war  against  Mexico,  over  the  opposition  of  the 
Whigs.     A  land  and  naval  force  took  posses-     War  with 
sion  of  California,  and  a  land  expedition  occu-      Mexico. 
pied  New  Mexico,  so  that  the  authority  of    Conquest  of 
Mexico  over  all  the  soil  north  of  her  present   F 
boundaries   was   abruptly   terminated  (1846).      At   the 
opening  of  1847,  Taylor  fought  the  last  battle  in  northern 
Mexico  (Buena  Vista),  defeating  the  Mexi-    BuenaVista. 
cans,  and  Scott,  with  a  new  army,  landed  at    scott's  cam- 
Vera  Cruz  for  a  march  upon  the  city  of  Mex-       paign- 
ico.     Scott's  march  was  marked  by  one  sue-       Peace> 
cessful  battle  after  another,  usually  against  heavy  odds ; 
and  in  September  he  took  the  capital  city  and  held  it 


184  THE   UNITED   STATES. 


until  peace  was  made  (1848)  by  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe 
Hidalgo.  Among  the  terms  of  peace  was  the  cession  of 
the  present  State  of  California  and  the  Territories  of 
Utah,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico,  the  consideration  being 
a  payment  of  $15,000,000  by  the  United  States  and 
the  assumption  of  some  $3,000,000  of  debts  due  by  Mex 
ico  to  American  citizens.  With  a  subsequent  rectifica 
tion  of  frontier  (1853),  this  cession  added  some  500,000 
square  miles  to  the  area  of  the  United  States  ;  Texas 
itself  made  up  some  375,000  square  miles  more.  The 
settlement  of  the  north-west  boundary  between  Oregon 
and  British  Columbia  (§  221),  giving  its  own  share  to 
each  country  (1846),  with  the  Texas  and  Mexican  ces 
sions,  gave  the  United  States  the  complete  territorial 
form  retained  until  the  annexation  of  Alaska  in  1867. 

225.  In  the  new  territory  slavery  had  been  forbidden 
under  Mexican  law ;  and  its  annexation  brought  up  the 

Slavery  in  the   question  of  its  status  under  American  law. 

new  Territory.  jje  wjlo  remembers  the  historical  fact  that 
slavery  had  never  been  more  than  a  custom,  ultimately 
recognized  and  protected  by  State  law,  will  not  have 
much  difficulty  in  deciding  about  the  propriety  of  forcing 
such  a  custom  by  law  upon  any  part  of  a  territory.  But, 
if  slavery  was  to  be  excluded  from  the  new  territory,  the 
States  which  should  ultimately  be  formed  out  of  it  would 
enter  as  free  States,  inclined  to  take  an  anti-slavery  view 
of  doubtful  questions ;  and  the  influence  of  the  south  in 
the  senate  would  be  decreased.  For  the  first  time  the 
south  appears  as  a  distinct  imperium  in  imperio  in  the 
territorial  difficulties  which  began  in  1848. 

226.  The  first  appearance  of  these  difficulties  brought 
out  in   the   Democratic  party  a  solution  which  was  so 
closely  in   line  with  the   prejudices    of   the  party,  and 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  185 

apparently  so  likely  to  meet  all  the  wishes  of  the  south, 
that  it  bade  fair  to  carry  the  party  through  the  crisis 
without  the  loss  of  its  southern  vote.     This    -squatter 
was  "squatter  sovereignty,"  the  notion  that   sovereignty." 
it  would  be  best  for  Congress  to  leave  the  people  of  each 
Territory  to  settle  the  question  of  the  existence  of  slavery 
for  themselves.     The  broader  and  democratic  ground  for 
the  party  would  have  been  that  which  it  at  first  seemed 
likely  to  take,  —  the  "  Wilmot  proviso,"  a  condition  pro 
posed  to  be  added  to  the  Act  authorizing  ac- 

....  „.          ..  .-..  .,  -.  Wilmot  proviso. 

quisitions  ot  territory,  providing  that  slavery 
should  be  forbidden  in  all  territory  to  be  acquired  under 
the  Act.     In  the  end  apparent  expediency  carried  the 
dominant  party  off  to  "squatter  sovereignty,"  and  the 
Democratic  adherents  of  the  Wilmot  proviso,  with  the 
Liberty  party  and  the  anti-slavery  Whigs,  united  in  1848 
under  the  name  of  the  Free- Soil  party.     The 
Whigs  had  no  solution  to  offer ;  their  entire 
programme,  from  this  time  to  their  downfall  as  a  party, 
consisted  in  a  persistent  effort  to  evade   or  ignore  all 
difficulties  connected  with  slavery. 

227.  Taylor,  after  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  resigned 
and  came  home,  considering  himself  ill-used  by  the  ad 
ministration.  He  refused  to  commit  himself  to  any 
party  ;  and  the  Whigs  were  forced  to  accept  him  as  their 
candidate  in  1848.  The  Democrats  nominated 

,,,-,,  ~     .,  T^.  oi     -i      Election  of  1848. 

Cass ;  and  the  Free-Soil  party  or  "  Free-Soil- 
crs,"  nominated  Van  Buren.  By  the  vote  of  the  last- 
named  party  the  Democratic  candidate  lost  New  York 
and  the  election,  and  Taylor  was  elected  President.  Tak 
ing  office  in  1849,  he  had  on  his  shoulders  the  whole  burden 
of  the  territorial  difficulties  aggravated  by  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  California  and  the  sudden  rise  of  popula- 


186  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

tion  there.  Congress  was  so  split  into  factions  that  it 
could  for  a  long  time  agree  upon  nothing ;  thieves  and 
outlaws  were  too  strong  for  the  semi-military  government 
of  California ;  and  the  people  of  that  Territory,  with  the 
approval  of  the  President,  proceeded  to  form  a  constitu 
tion  and  apply  for  admission  as  a  State.  They  had  so 
framed  their  constitution  as  to  forbid  slavery  ;  and  this 
was  really  the  application  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  to  the 
richest  part  of  the  new  Territory,  and  the  south  felt  that 
it  had  been  robbed  of  the  cream  of  what  it  alone  had 
fought  cheerfully  to  obtain. 

228.   The  admission  of  California  was  not  secured  until 
September,  1850,  just  after  Taylor's  sudden  death,  and 

Admission  of  tnen  only  by  the  addition  of  a  bonus  to  Texas, 
California,  ^g  division  of  the  rest  of  the  Mexican  cession 
into  the  Territories  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico  without 
mention  of  slavery,  and  the  passage  of  a  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  The  slave  trade,  but  not  slavery,  was  forbidden  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  The  whole  was  generally 
known  as  the  compromise  of  1850.  Two  of  its  features 

compromise  of  nee(l  notice.  As  has  been  said,  slavery  was 
I85°-  not  mentioned  in  the  Act ;  and  the  status  of 
slavery  in  the  Territories  was  thus  left  uncertain.  Con 
gress  can  veto  any  legislation  of  a  territorial  legislature, 
but,  in  fact,  the  two  houses  of  Congress  were  hardly  ever 
able  to  unite  on  anything  after  1850,  and  both  these  Ter 
ritories  did  establish  slavery  before  1860,  without  a  Con 
gressional  veto.  The  advantage  here  was  with  the  south. 

Fugitive  slave  The  other  point,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  was 
Law-        a  special  demand  of  the  south.    The  Constitu 
tion  contained  clauses  directing  that    agitive  criminals 
and  slaves  should  be  delivered  up,  on  requisition,  by  the 
State  to  which  they  had  fled  (§  124).     In  the  case  of 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  187 

criminals  the  delivery  was  directed  to  be  made  by  the 
executive  of  the  State  to  which  they  had  fled ;  in  the 
case  of  slaves  no  delivering  authority  was  specified,  and 
an  Act  of  Congress  in  1793  had  imposed  the  duty  on 
Federal  judges  or  on  local  State  magistrates.  Some  of 
the  States  had  passed  "  personal  liberty  laws/'  forbidding 
or  limiting  the  action  of  their  magistrates  in  personai  liberty 
such  cases ;  and  the  Act  of  1850  transferred  laws- 
the  decision  of  such  cases  to  United  States  commission 
ers,  with  the  assistance  of  United  States  marshals.  It 
imposed  penalties  on  rescues,  and  denied  a  jury  trial. 
All  the  ill  effects  of  the  law  were  not  felt  until  a  year  or 
two  of  its  operation  had  passed  (§  244). 

229.  The  question  of  slavery  had  taken  up  so  much 
time  in  Congress  that  its  other  legislation  was  compara 
tively  limited.    The  rates  of  postage  were  reduced  to  five 
and  ten  cents  for  distances  less  and  greater  than  300 
miles   (1845)  ;  and  the  naval  school  at  Annapolis  was 
established    the   same   year.       The    military   school    at 
West  Point  had  been  established  in  1794.     When  the 
Democratic  party  had  obtained  complete  control  of  the 
government,  it  re-established  the  "  sub-treasury,"  or  inde 
pendent  treasury  (1846),  which  is  still  the 

i         .  P     .,  T  Tariff  of  1846. 

basis  oi  the  treasury  system.  In  the  same 
year,  after  an  exhaustive  report  by  Robert  J.  Walker, 
Folk's  secretary  of  the  treasury,  the  tariff  of  1846  was 
passed ;  it  reduced  duties,  and  cut  out  all  forms  of  pro 
tection.  With  the  exception  of  a  slight  additional  re 
duction  of  duties  in  1857,  this  remained  in  force  until 
1861. 

230.  Five  States  were  admitted  during  the  last  ten 
years  of  this  period, — Florida   (1845),   Texas    (1845), 
Iowa  (1846),  Wisconsin  (1848),  and  California  (1850). 


188  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  early  entrance  of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Florida  had 

been  due  largely  to  Indian  wars,  —  the  Black  Hawk  war 

in  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  (1832),  and   the  Seminole  war 

in  Florida    (1835-37),  after  each  of   which 

Admission  v  ^  '  ' 

of  Florida,  Iowa,  the  defeated  Indians  were  compelled  to  cede 

and  Wisconsin.  Qf 


tion  of  Indian  titles  in  northern  Michigan  brought 
about  the  discovery  of  the  great  copper  fields  of  that 
region,  whose  existence  had  been  suspected  long  before 
it  could  be  proved.  Elsewhere  settlement  followed  the 
lines  already  marked  out,  except  in  the  new  possessions 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  whose  full  possibilities  were  not  yet 
Railways  and  known.  Railroads  in  the  Eastern  States  were 
telegraphs,  beginning  to  show  something  of  a  connected 
system;  in  the  south  they  had  hardly  changed  since 
1840  ;  in  the  west  they  had  only  been  prolonged  on  their 
original  lines.  The  telegraph,  which  was  to  make  man 
master  of  even  the  longest  and  most  complicated  systems, 
was  brought  into  use  in  1844  ;  but  it  is  not  until  the 
census  of  1860  that  its  effects  are  seen  in  the  fully  con 
nected  network  of  railroads  which  then  covers  the  whole 
north  and  west  (§  273). 

231.  The  sudden  development  of  wealth  in  the  country 
gave  an  impetus  to  the  spirit  of  invention.  Goodyear's 
method  of  vulcanizing  rubber  (1839)  had  come 
into  use.  M'Cormick  had  made  an  invention 
whose  results  have  been  hardly  less  than  that  of  the 
locomotive  in  their  importance  to  the  United  States. 
He  had  patented  a  reaping-machine  in  1834,  and  this, 
further  improved  and  supplemented  by  other  inventions, 
had  brought  into  play  the  whole  system  of  agricultural 
machinery  whose  existence  was  scarcely  known  elsewhere 
until  the  London  «  World's  Fair  "  of  1851  brought  it  into 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT.  189 


notice.  It  was  agricultural  machinery  that  made  western 
farms  profitable  and  enabled  the  railroads  to  fill  the  west 
so  rapidly  (§  278).  A  successful  sewing-machine  came 
in  1846 ;  the  power-loom  and  the  surgical  use  of  anaes 
thetics  in  the  same  year ;  and  the  rotary  press  for  print 
ing  in  1847. 

232.  All  the  conditions  of  life  were  changing  so  rap 
idly  that  it  was  natural  that  the  minds  of  men  should 
change  with  them  or  become  unsettled.     This  was  the 
era  of  new  sects,  of  communities,  of  fantastic  proposals 
of  every  kind,  of  transcendentalism  in  literature,  religion, 
and  politics.     Not  the  most  fantastic  or  benevolent,  but 
certainly  the  most  successful,  of  these  was  the  sect  of 
Mormons  or  Latter-day  Saints.     They  settled 

in  the  new  Territory  of  Utah  in  1847,  calling 
their  capital  Salt  Lake  City,  and  spreading  thence  through 
the  neighboring  Territories.  There  they  have  become  a 
menace  to  the  American  system ;  their  numbers  are  so 
great  that  it  is  against  American  instincts  to  deprive 
them  of  self-government  and  keep  them  under  a  Con 
gressional  despotism  ;  while  their  polygamy  and  submis 
sion  to  their  hierarchy  make  it  impossible  to  erect  them 
into  a  State  which  shall  have  complete  control  of  mar 
riage  and  divorce. 

233.  The  material  development  of  the  United  States 
since  1830  had  been  extraordinary,  but  every  year  made 
it  more  evident  that  the  south  was  not  shar- 

.,         T,  -•     .  ,-,  .,          ,,       ,,  The  south. 

ing  in  it.  It  is  plain  now  that  the  fault  was 
in  the  labor  system  of  the  south :  her  only  laborers 
were  slaves,  and  a  slave  who  was  fit  for  anything  better 
than  field  labor  was  prima  fade  a  dangerous  man.  The 
process  of  divergence  had  as  yet  gone  only  far  enough  to 
awaken  intelligent  men  in  the  south  to  the  fact  of  its 


190  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

existence,  and  to  stir  them  to  efforts  as  hopeless  as  they 
were  earnest,  to  find  some  artificial  stimulus  for  southern 
industries.  In  the  next  ten  years  the  process  was  to 
show  its  effects  on  the  national  field. 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  191 


IX. 

TENDENCIES   TO   DISUNION. 

1850-61. 

234.  THE  abolitionists  had  never  ceased  to  din  the 
iniquity  of  slavery  into  the  ears  of  the  American  people. 
Calhoun,  Webster,  and  Clay,  with  nearly  all  slavery  and  the 
the  other  political  leaders  of  1850,  had  united      sections. 

in  deploring  the  wickedness  of  these  fanatics,  who  were 
persistently  stirring  up  a  question  which  was  steadily 
widening  the  distance  between  the  sections.  They  mis 
took  the  symptom  for  the  disease.  Slavery  itself  had 
put  the  south  out  of  harmony  with  its  surroundings,  and 
still  more  out  of  harmony  with  the  inevitable  lines  of 
the  country's  development.  Even  in  1850,  though  they 
hardly  yet  knew  it,  the  two  sections  had  drifted  so  far 
apart  that  they  were  practically  two  different  countries. 

235.  The  case  of  the  south  was  one  of  arrested  devel 
opment.      The  south  remained  very  much  as  in  1790; 
while  other  parts  of  the  country  had  devel-    The  „  s,ave 
oped,  it  had  stood  still.     The  remnants    of      power." 
colonial   feeling,   of    class   influence,   which    advancing 
democracy  had  wiped  out  elsewhere,  retained  all  their 
force  here,  aggravated  by  the  effects  of  an  essentially 
arietocratic  system  of  employment.    The  ruling  class  had 
to  maintain  a  military  control  over  the  laboring  class, 
and  a  class  influence  over  the  poorer  whites.     It  had 


192  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

even  secured  in  the  Constitution  provision  for  its  political 
power  in  the  representation  given  to  three-fifths  of  the 
slaves.  The  twenty  additional  members  of  the  house  of 
representatives  were  not  simply  a  gain  to  the  south ; 
they  were  still  more  a  gain  to  the  "black  districts," 
where  whites  were  few,  and  the  slave-holder  controlled 
the  .district.  Slave-owners  and  slave-holders  together, 
there  were  but  350,000  of  them  ;  but  they  had  common 
interests,  the  intelligence  to  see  them,  and  the  courage  to 
contend  for  them.  The  first  step  of  a  rising  man  was  to 
buy  slaves  ;  and  this  was  enough  to  enroll  him  in  the 
dominant  class.  From  it  were  drawn  the  representatives 
and  senators  in  Congress,  the  governors,  and  all  the 
holders  of  offices  over  which  the  "slave  power,"  as  it 
came  to  be  called,  had  control.  Not  only  was  the  south 
inert;  its  ruling  class,  its  ablest  and  best  men,  were 
united  in  defence  of  tendencies  which  were  alien  and 
hostile  to  those  of  the  rest  of  the  country. 

236.    Immigration  into  the  United  States  was  not  an 

important  factor  in  its  development   until   about   1847. 

The  immigrants,  so  late   as   1820,  numbered 

Immigration.     .  . -,  ITT 

but  8000  per  annum;  their  number  did  not 
touch  100,000  until  1842,  and  then  it  fell  for  a  year  or 
two  almost  to  half  that  number.  In  1847  it  rose  again  to 
235,000,  in  1849  to  300,000,  and  in  1850  to  428,000 ;  all 
told,  more  than  two  and  a  quarter  million  persons  from 
abroad  settled  in  the  United  States  between  1847  and 
1854.  Taking  the  lowest  estimates,  — eighty  dollars  each 
for  the  actual  amount  of  money  brought  in  by  immi 
grants,  and  eight  hundred  dollars  each  for  their  indus 
trial  value  to  the  country, — the  wealth-increasing  influ 
ence  of  such  a  stream  of  immigration  may  be  calculated. 
Its  political  effects  were  even  greater,  and  were  all  in 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  193 

the  same  direction.  Leaving  out  the  dregs  of  the  immi 
gration,  which  settled  down  in  the  seaboard  cities,  its 
best  part  was  a  powerful  nationalizing  force.  It  had  not 
come  to  any  particular  State,  but  to  the  United  States  ; 
it  had  none  of  the  traditional  prejudices  in.  favor  of  a 
State,  but  a  strong  feeling  for  the  whole  country;  and 
the  new  feelings  which  it  brought  in  must  have  had  their 
weight  not  only  on  the  gross  mass  of  the  people,  but  on 
the  views  of  former  leaders.  And  all  the  influences  of 
this  enormous  immigration  were  confined  to  the  north 
and  west,  whose  divergence  from  the  south  thus  received 
a  new  impetus.  The  immigration  avoided  slave  soil 
as  if  by  instinct.  So  late  as  1880  the  census  reports 
that  the  Southern  States,  except  Florida,  Louisiana,  and 
Texas,  are  "  practically  without  any  foreign  element " ; 
but  it  was  only  in  1850-60  that  this  differentiating 
circumstance  began  to  show  itself  plainly.  And,  as 
the  sections  began  to  differ  further  in  aims  and  policy, 
the  north  began  to  gain  heavily  in  ability  to  ensure  its 
success. 

237.  Texas  was  the  last  slave  State  ever  admitted  j 
and,  as  it  refused  to  be  divided,  the  south  had  no  further 
increase  of  numbers  in  the  senate.  Until  The  sections  in 
1850  the  admission  of  a  free  State  had  been  Congress. 
so  promptly  balanced  by  the  admission  of  a  slave  State 
that  the  senators  of  the  two  sections  had  remained  about 
equal  in  number ;  in  1860  the  free  States  had  36  sena 
tors,  and  the  slave  States  only  30.  As  the  representation 
in  the  house  had  changed  from  35  free  State  and  30 
slave  State  members  in  1790  to  147  free  State  and  90 
slave  State  in  1860,  and  as  the  electors  are  the  sum  of 
the  numbers  of  senators  and  representatives,  it  is  evident 
that  political  power  had  passed  away  from  the  south  in 


194  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

1850.  If  at  any  time  the  free  States  should  unite  they 
could  control  the  house  of  representatives  and  the  senate, 
elect  the  President  and  Vice-President,  dictate  the  ap 
pointment  of  judges  and  other  Federal  officers,  and  make 
the  laws  what  they  pleased.  If  pressed  to  it,  they  could 
even  control  the  interpretation  of  the  laws  by  the  Su 
preme  Court.  No  Federal  judge  could  be  removed  except 
by  impeachment  (§  121),  but  an  Act  of  Congress  could 
at  any  time  increase  the  number  of  judges  to  any  extent, 
and  the  appointment  of  the  additional  judges  could  reverse 
the  opinion  of  the  court.  All  the  interests  of  the  south 
depended  on  the  one  question  whether  the  free  States 
would  unite  or  not. 

238.  In  circumstances  so  critical  a  cautious  quiescence 
and  avoidance  of  public  attention  was  the  only  safe  course 

Tendencies  to  f°r  tne  "slave  power,"  but  that  course  had 
disunion,  "become  impossible.  The  numbers  interested 
had  become  too  large  to  be  subject  to  complete  discipline ; 
all  could  not  be  held  in  cautious  reserve ;  and,  when  an 
advanced  proposal  came  from  any  quarter  of  the  slave- 
holding  lines,  the  whole  army  was  shortly  forced  up  to 
the  advanced  position.  Every  movement  of  the  mass 
was  necessarily  aggressive;  and  aggression  meant  final 
collision.  If  collision  came,  it  must  be  on  some  question 
of  the  rights  of  the  States ;  and  on  such  a  question  the 
whole  south  would  move  as  one  man.  Everything  thus 
tended  to  disunion. 

239.  The  Protestant  churches  of  the  United  States  had 
reflected  in  their  organization  the  spirit  of  the  political 

Sectarian  divis-  institutions  under  which  they  lived.     Acting 

ion-         as  purely  voluntary   associations,  they   had 

been  organized  into  governments  by  delegates,  much  like 

the  "  conventions "  which  had  been  evolved  in  the  politi- 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  195 

cal  parties  (§  203).  The  omnipresent  slavery  question 
intruded  into  these  bodies,  and  split  them.  The  Baptist 
Church  was  thus  divided  into  a  northern  and  a  southern 
branch  in  1845,  and  the  equally  powerful  Methodist 
Church  met  the  same  fate  the  following  year.  Two  of 
the  four  great  Protestant  bodies  were  thus  no  longer 
national ;  it  was  only  by  the  most  careful  management 
that  the  integrity  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  main 
tained  until  1861,  when  it  also  yielded;  and  only  the 
Episcopal  and  Roman  Catholic  Churches  retained  their 
national  character.  If  the  process  of  disruption  did  not 
extend  to  other  sects,  it  was  because  they  were  already 
mainly  northern  or  mainly  southern. 

240.  The  political  parties  showed  the  same  tendency. 
Each  began  to  shrivel  up  in  one  section  or  the  other.  The 
notion  of  "squatter  sovereignty"  attractive  at 
first  to  the  western  democracy,  and  not  repu 
diated  by  the  south,  enabled  the  Democratic  party  to  pass 
the  crisis  of  1850  without  losing  much  of  its  northern 
vote,  while  southern  Whigs  began  to  drift  in,  making  the 
party  continually  more  pro-slavery.  This  could  not  con 
tinue  long  without  beginning  to  decrease  its  northern 
vote,  but  this  effect  did  not  become  plainly  visible  until 
after  1852.  The  efforts  of  the  Whig  party  to  ignore  the 
great  question  alienated  its  anti-slavery  members  in  the 
north,  while  they  did  not  satisfy  its  southern  members. 
The  Whig  losses  were  not  at  first  heavy,  but,  as  the 
electoral  vote  of  each  State  is  determined  by  the  barest 
plurality  of  the  popular  vote,  they  were  enough  to  defeat 
the  party  almost  everywhere  in  the  presidential 

1  •  P  -I  r>fc\  rm  TTTI     •  T    <~<  Election  of  1852. 

election  of  18o2.     The  Whigs  nominated  Scott 

and  the  Democrats  Pierce;   and  Pierce  carried   all   but 

four  of  the  thirty-one  States,   and  was  elected.      This 


196  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

revelation  of  hopeless  weakness  was  the  downfall  of  the 
Whig  party ;  it  maintained  its  organization  for  four  years 
longer,  but  the  life  had  gone  out  of  it.  The  future  was 
with  the  Free-Soil  party,  though  it  had  polled  but  few 
votes  in  1852. 

241.  During  the  administration  of  Taylor  (and  Vice- 
President  Fillmore,  who  succeeded  him)   Clay,  Webster, 

Changes  in  Calhoun,  Polk,  and  Taylor  were  removed  by 
leadership.  death,  and  there  was  a  steady  drift  of  other 
political  leaders  out  of  public  life.  New  men  were  push 
ing  in  everywhere,  and  in  both  sections  they  showed  the 
prevailing  tendency  to  disunion.  The  best  of  them  were 
unprecedentedly  radical.  Sumner,  Seward,  and  Chase 
came  into  the  senate,  bringing  the  first  accession  of 
recognized  force  and  ability  to  the  anti-slavery  feeling 
in  that  body.  The  new  southern  men,  such  as  Davis, 
and  the  Democratic  recruits  from  the  southern  Whig 
party,  such  as  Stephens,  were  ready  to  take  the  ground 
on  which  Calhoun  had  always  insisted, — that  Congress 
was  bound  not  merely  to  the  negative  duty  of  not  attack 
ing  slavery  in  the  Territories,  but  to  the  positive  duty  of 
protecting  it.  This,  if  it  should  become  the  general 
southern  position,  was  certain  to  destroy  the  notion  of 
squatter  sovereignty  (§  226),  and  thus  to  split  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  which  was  almost  the  last  national  ligament 
that  now  held  the  two  fragments  of  the  Union  together. 

242.  The  social  disintegration  was  as  rapid.    Northern 
men  travelling  in  the  south  were  naturally  looked  upon 

social  diver-    with  increasing  suspicion,  and  were  made  to 
gence.       feei  ^hat  they  were  on  a  soil  alien  in  sympa 
thies.      Some  of  the  worst  phases  of   democracy  were 
called  into  play  in  the  south ;  and,  in  some  sections,  law 
openly  yielded  supremacy  to  popular  passion  in  the  cases 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  197 

of  suspected  abolitionists.  Southern  conventions,  on  all 
sorts  of  subjects,  became  common ;  and  in  these  meetings, 
permeated  by  a  dawning  sense  of  southern  nationality, 
hardly  any  proposition  looking  to  southern  independence 
of  the  north  was  met  with  disfavor.  In  State  elections  a 
distinctly  disunion  element  appeared ;  and,  though  it  was 
defeated,  the  majority  did  not  deny  the  right  of  secession, 
only  its  expediency. 

243.  Calhoun,  in  his  last  and  greatest  speech,  called 
attention  to  the  manner  in  which  one  tie  after  another 
was  snapping.     But  he  ignored  the  real  peril  Progress  of  dis. 
of  the  situation  —  its  dangerous  facts:   that       union- 
the   south  was   steadily  growing  weaker  in  comparison 
with  the  north,  and  more  unable  to  secure  a  wider  area 
for  the  slave  system ;  that  it  was  therefore  being  steadily 
forced  into  demanding  active  Congressional  protection  for 
slavery  in  the  Territories ;  that  the  north  would  never 
submit  to  this ;  and  that  the  south  must  submit  to  the 
will  of  the  majority  or  bring  about  a  collision  by  attempt 
ing  to  secede. 

244.  Anti-slavery  feeling  in  the  north  was  stimulated 
by  the  manner  in  which  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  (§  228) 
was  enforced  immediately  after  1850.      The      Fugitive 
chase  after  fugitive  slaves  was  prosecuted  in    Slave  Law- 
many  cases  with  circumstances  of  revolting  brutality, 
and  features  of  the  slave  system  which  had  been  tacitly 
looked  upon  as  fictitious  were  brought  home  to  the  heart 
of  the  free  States.     The  added  feeling  showed      Kansas- 
its  force  when  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  was  Nebraska  Act 
passed  by  Congress  (1854).     It  organized  the  two  new 
Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska.    Both  of  them  were 
forever  free  soil  by  the  terms  of  the  Missouri  compro 
mise  (§  197).     But  the  success  of  the  notion  of  squatter 


198  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

sovereignty  in  holding  the  Democratic  party  together 
while  destroying  the  Whig  party  had  intoxicated  Douglas 
and  other  northern  Democrats ;  and  they  now  applied  the 
doctrine  to  these  Territories.  They  did  not  desire  "to 
vote  slavery  up  or  down,"  but  left  the  decision  to  the 
people  of  the  two  Territories. 

245.  This  was  the  grossest  political  blunder  in  American 
history.  The  status  of  slavery  had  been  settled,  by  the 
Constitution  or  by  the  compromises  of  1820  or  1850,  on 
every  square  foot  of  American  soil ;  right  or  wrong,  the 
settlement  was  made.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  took  a 
great  mass  of  territory  out  of  the  settlement  and  flung  it 
into  the  arena  as  a  prize  for  which  the  sections  were  to 
struggle ;  and  the  struggle  always  tended  to  force,  as  the 
only  arbiter.  The  first  result  of  the  Act  was  to  throw 
The  "American  parties  into  chaos.  An  American  or  "Know- 
party."  Nothing  "  party,  a  secret  oath-bound  organiza 
tion,  pledged  to  oppose  the  influence  or  power  of  foreign- 
born  citizens,  had  been  formed  to  take  the  place  of  the 
defunct  Whig  party.  It  had  been  quite  successful  in 
State  elections  for  a  time,  and  was  now  beginning  to  have 
larger  aspirations.  It,  like  the  Whig  party,  intended  to 
ignore  slavery,  but,  after  a  few  years  of  life,  the  questions 
complicated  with  slavery  entered  its  organization  and 
divided  it  also.  Even  in  1854  many  of  its  leaders  in  the 
north  were  forced  to  take  position  against  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act,  while  hosts  of  others  joined  in  the  oppo 
sition  without  any  party  organization.  No  American 
party  ever  rose  so  swiftly  as  this  latter  ;  with  no  other 
The  Republican  party  name  than  the  awkward  title  of  "Anti- 
party.  Nebraska  men,"  it  carried  the  Congressional 
elections  of  1854  at  the  north,  forced  many  of  the  former 
Know-Nothing  leaders  into  union  with  it,  and  controlled 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  199 

the  house  of  representatives  of  the  Congress  which  met  in 
1855.  The  Democratic  party,  which  had  been  practically 
the  only  party  since  1852,  had  now  to  face  the  latest  and 
strongest  of  its  broad-constructionist  opponents,  one  which 
with  the  nationalizing  features  of  the  Federal  and  Whig 
parties  combined  democratic  feelings  and  methods,  and, 
above  all,  had  a  democratic  purpose  at  bottom.  It 
acknowledged,  at  first,  no  purpose  aimed  at  slavery,  only 
an  intention  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories ;  but, 
under  such  principles,  it  was  the  only  party  which  was 
potentially  an  anti-slavery  party,  the  only  party  to  which 
the  enslaved  laborer  of  the  south  could  look  with  the 
faintest  hope  of  aid  in  reaching  the  status  of  a  man.  The 
new  party  had  grasped  the  function  which  belonged  of 
right  to  its  great  opponent,  and  it  seized  with  it  its  oppo 
nent's  original  title.  The  name  Democrat  had  quite  taken 
the  place  of  that  first  used  —  Republican  (§  150),  but  the 
latter  had  never  passed  out  of  popular  remembrance  and 
liking  at  the  north.  The  new  party  took  quick  and  skil 
ful  advantage  of  this  by  assuming  the  old  name,  and  early 
in  1856  the  two  great  parties  of  the  next  thirty  years  — 
the  Democratic  and  Republican  parties  —  were  drawn  up 
against  one  another. 

246.    The  foreign  relations  of  the  United  States  dur 
ing  Pierce's  term  of  office   were  overshadowed  by   the 
domestic  difficulties,  but  were  of  importance. 
In  the  Koszta  case  (1853)  national  protec 
tion  had  been  afforded  on  foreign  soil  to  a  person  who 
had  only  taken  the  preliminary  steps  to  naturalization. 
Japan  had  been  opened  to  American  inter 
course  and  commerce  (1854).     But  the  ques 
tion  of   slavery   was   nrore    and   more    thrusting   itself 
into  foreign  relations.      A   great   southern  republic,   to 


200  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


be  founded  at  first  by  the  slave  States,  but  to  take  in 
gradually  the  whole  territory  around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  include  the  West  Indies,  was  soon  to  be  a  pretty 
general  ambition  among  slave-holders,  and  its  first 
phases  appeared  during  Pierce's  administration.  Efforts 
were  begun  to  obtain  Cuba  from  Spain ;  and  the  three 
leading  American  ministers  abroad,  meeting  at  Ostend, 
Ostend  mani-  united  in  declaring  the  possession  of  Cuba  to 
festo.  ke  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  United 
Filibustering,  states  (1854).  "Filibustering"  expeditions 
against  Cuba  or  the  smaller  South  American  states,  in 
tended  so  to  revolutionize  them  as  to  lay  a  basis  for  an 
application  to  be  annexed  to  the  United  States,  became 
common,  and  taxed  the  energies  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  for  their  prevention.  All  these,  however,  yielded 
in  interest  and  importance  to  the  affairs  in  Kansas. 

247.  Nebraska  was  then  supposed  to  be  a  desert,  and 
attention  was  directed  almost  exclusively  to  Kansas. 
No  sooner  had  its  organization  left  the  matter 
of  slavery  to  be  decided  by  its  "  people  "  than 
the  anti-slavery  people  of  the  north  and  west  felt  it  to 
be  their  duty  to  see  that  the  "  people  "  of  the  Territory 
should  be  anti-slavery  in  sympathy.  Emigrant  associa 
tions  were  formed,  and  these  shipped  men  and  families 
to  Kansas,  arming  them  for  their  protection  in  the  new 
country.  Southern  newspapers  called  for  similar  meas 
ures  in  the  south,  but  the  call  was  less  effective.  South 
ern  men  without  slaves,  settling  a  new  State,  were  un 
comfortably  apt  to  prohibit  slavery,  as  in  California. 
Only  slave-holders  were  trusty  pro-slavery  men ;  and 
such  were  not  likely  to  take  slaves  to  Kansas,  and  risk 
their  ownership  on  the  result  of  the  struggle.  But  for 
the  people  of  Missouri,  Kansas  would  have  been  free 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  201 

soil  at  once.  Lying  across  the  direct  road  to  Kansas, 
the  Missouri  settlers  blockaded  the  way  of  free-state 
settlers,  crossed  into  Kansas,  and  voted  profusely  at  the 
first  Territorial  election.  Their  votes  chose  a  Terri 
torial  legislature  which  gave  a  complete  code  of  slave 
laws  to  the  Territory.  Passing  to  the  north  of  Missouri 
the  "  free-state  settlers "  entered  Kansas  to  find  that 
their  opponents  had  secured  the  first  position.  This 
brought  out  the  fundamental  difference  between  a  Terri 
tory — under  the  absolute  control  of  Congress  and  only 
privileged  in  certain  branches  of  legislation  —  and  a 
State  with  complete  jurisdiction  over  its  own  affairs. 
Finding  themselves  cut  off  from  control  of  the  former, 
the  free-state  settlers  determined  to  attempt  to  substi 
tute  the  latter.  They  organized  a  State  Free-state  gov- 
government  (1855),  and  applied  for  admis-  emment. 
sion  by  Congress.  Such  irregular  erections  of  States 
had  been  known  before;  and,  though  they  were  con 
fessedly  not  binding  until  confirmed  by  Congress,  the 
Democratic  party  had  always  been  tender  with  them, 
and  prone  to  seek  a  compromise  with  them.  A  symptom 
of  the  process  which  had  been  making  the  Democratic 
party  pro-slavery  was  seen  in  the  attitude  which  the 
Democratic  administration  now  took  towards  the 
inchoate  State  of  Kansas.  Never  thinking  of  compro 
mise,  it  pounced  on  the  new  organization,  scattered  it, 
arrested  its  leaders,  and  expressed  a  hesitating  desire 
to  try  them  for  treason  (1856).  Nevertheless,  the  free- 
state  settlers  gave  no  further  obedience  to  the  Territo 
rial  Government,  as  the  pro-slavery  settlers  refused  to 
recognize  the  pseudo-state  Government,  and  the  struggle 
passed  into  a  real  civil  war,  the  two  powers  mustering 
considerable  armies,  fighting  battles,  capturing  towns, 


202  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

and  paroling  prisoners.  The  struggle  was  really  over  in 
1857,  and  the  south  was  beaten.  It  could  not  compete 
with  the  resources  and  enthusiasm  of  the  other  section ; 
its  settlers  were  not  unanimous,  as  their  opponents  were ; 
and  the  anti-slavery  settlers  were  in  a  great  majority. 
There  were,  however,  all  sorts  of  obstacles  yet  to  be 
overcome  before  the  new  State  of  Kansas  was  recognized 
by  Congress,  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  senators  of  the 
seceding  States  (1861). 

248.    In  the  heat  of  the  Kansas  struggle   came  the 

presidential  election  of  1856.     The  Democrats  nominated 

Buchanan,  declaring,  as  usual,  for  the  strictest 

Election  of  1856.  -,.....  p,i  p    ,1         ~n     -<          -i    ^ 

limitation  01  the  powers  or  the  Jj  ederal  Gov 
ernment  on  a  number  of  points  specified,  and  reaffirming 
the  principle  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  —  the  settle 
ment  of  slavery  by  the  people  of  the  Territory.  The 
remnant  of  the  Whig  party,  including  the  Know-Nothings 
of  the  north  and  those  southern  men  who  wished  no 
further  discussion  of  slavery,  nominated  the  President 
who  had  gone  out  of  office  in  1853,  Fillmore.  The  Ee- 
publican  party  nominated  Fremont ;  the  bulk  of  its 
manifesto  was  taken  up  with  protests  against  attempts 
to  introduce  slavery  into  the  Territories ;  but  it  showed 
its  broad-construction  tendencies  by  declaring  for  appro 
priations  of  public  moneys  for  internal  improvements. 
The  Democrats  were  successful  in  electing  Buchanan; 
bat  the  position  of  the  party  was  quite  different  from  the 
triumph  with  which  it  had  come  out  of  the  election  of 
1852.  It  was  no  longer  master  of  twenty-seven  of  the 
thirty-one  States ;  all  New  England  and  New  York, 
all  the  north-west,  but  Indiana  and  Illinois,  all  the  free 
States  but  five,  had  gone  against  it ;  its  candidate  no 
longer  had  a  majority  of  the  popular  vote,  but  was  chosen 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  203 

by  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes ;  and  it  had  before  it 
a  party  with  nearly  as  many  popular  votes  as  its  own, 
the  control  of  most  of  the  strongest  section  of  the  Union, 
and  an  enthusiasm  which  was  more  dangerous  still.  For 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  a  distinctly 
anti-slavery  candidate  had  obtained  an  electoral  vote,  and 
had  even  come  near  obtaining  the  presidency.  Fillmore 
had  carried  but  one  State,  Maryland;  Buchanan  had 
carried  the  rest  of  the  south,  with  a  few  States  in  the 
north,  and  Fremont  the  rest  of  the  north  and  none  of  the 
south.  If  things  had  gone  so  far  that  the  two  sections 
were  to  be  constituted  into  opposing  political  parties,  it 
was  evident  that  the  end  was  near. 

249.  Oddly  enough  the  constitutionality  of  the  com 
promise  of  1820  (§  197)  had  never  happened  to  come 
before  the  Supreme  Court  for  consideration.  The  Dred  Scott 
In  1856-57  it  came  up  for  the  first  time.  decision- 
One  Dred  Scott,  a  Missouri  slave  who  had  been  taken 
to  the  territory  covered  by  the  compromise,  and  had 
therefore  sued  for  his  freedom,  was  sold  to  a  citizen  of 
another  State.  Scott  then  transferred  his  suit  from 
the  State  to  the  Federal  courts,  under  the  power  given 
to  them  to  try  suits  between  citizens  of  different  States, 
and  the  case  came  by  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court.  Its 
decision  was  announced  at  the  beginning  of  Buchanan's 
administration.  It  put  Scott  out  of  court  on  the  ground 
that  a  slave,  or  the  descendant  of  slaves,  could  not  be 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  or  have  any  standing  in 
Federal  courts.  The  opinion  of  the  chief-justice  went 
on  to  attack  the  validity  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  for 
the  reasons  that  one  of  the  constitutional  functions  of 
Congress  was  the  protection  of  property;  that  slaves 
had  been  recognized  as  property  by  the  Constitution; 


204  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

and  that  Congress  was  bound  to  protect,  not  to  prohibit, 
slavery  in  the  Territories.  The  mass  of  the  northern 
people  held  that  slaves  were  looked  on  by  the  Constitu 
tion,  not  as  property,  but  as  "  persons  held  to  service  or 
labor "  by  State  laws ;  that  the  constitutional  function 
of  Congress  was  the  protection  of  liberty  as  well  as 
property ;  and  that  Congress  was  thus  bound  to  prohibit, 
not  to  protect,  slavery  in  the  Territories.  Another  step 
in  the  road  to  disunion  was  thus  taken,  as  the  only 
peaceful  interpreter  of  the  Constitution  was  pushed  out 
of  the  way.  The  north  flouted  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  the  storm  of  angry  dissent  which 
it  aroused  did  the  disunionists  good  service  at  the  south. 
From  this  time  the  leading  newspapers  in  the  south 
maintained  that  the  radical  southern  view  first  advanced 
by  Calhoun,  and  but  slowly  accepted  by  other  southern 
leaders,  as  to  the  duty  of  Congress  to  protect  slavery 
in  the  Territories,  had  been  confirmed  by  the  Supreme 
Court;  that  the  northern  Eepublicans  had  rejected  it; 
and  that  even  the  squatter  sovereignty  theory  of  northern 
Democrats  could  no  longer  be  submitted  to  by  the  south. 
250.  The  population  of  the  United  States  in  1860  was 
over  31,000,000,  an  increase  of  more  than  8,000,000  in 
.  ten  years.  As  the  decennial  increase  of  popu- 

Admission  of  _  ^  I  _  ^          *     * 

Minnesota  and  lation  became  larger,  so  did  the  divergence 
Oregon.  ^  ^e  sections  in  population,  and  still  more 
in  wealth  and  resources.  Two  more  free  States  came 
in  during  this  period,  —  Minnesota  (1858)  and  Oregon 
(1859),  —  and  Kansas  was  clamoring  loudly  for  the  same 
privilege.  The  free  and  slave  States,  which  had  been 
almost  equal  in  population  in  1790,  stood  now  as  19  to 
12.  And  of  the  12,000,000  in  slave  States,  the  4,000,000 
slaves  and  the  250,000  free  blacks  were  not  so  much 


TENDENCIES  TO  DISUNION.  205 

a  factor  of  strength,  as  a  possible  source  of  weakness 
and  danger.  No  serious  slave  rising  had  ever  taken 
place  in  the  south ;  but  the  sudden  flaming  out  of  John 
Brown's  insurrection  (1859),  and  the  alarm  John  Brown's 
which  it  carried  through  the  south,  were  raid- 
tokens  of  a  danger  which  added  a  new  horror  to  the 
chances  of  civil  war.  It  was  not  wonderful  that  men, 
in  the  hope  of  finding  some  compromise  by  which  to 
avoid  such  a  catastrophe,  should  be  willing  to  give  up 
everything  but  principle  and  even  to  trench  sharply 
upon  principle  itself,  nor  that  offers  of  compromise 
should  urge  southern  leaders  farther  into  the  fatal  belief 
that  "  the  north  would  not  fight." 

251.  Northern  Democrats,  under  the  lead  of  Douglas, 
had  been  forced  already  almost  to  the  point  of  revolt  by 
the  determination  of  southern  senators  to  prevent  the 
admission  of  Kansas  as  a  free  State,  if  not  to  secure 
her  admission  as  a  slave  State.  When  the 

Division  of 

Democratic  convention  of  1860  met  at  Charles-  the  Democratic 
ton,  the  last  strand  of  the  last  national  polit-  party' 
ical  organization  parted;  the  Democratic  party  itself 
was  split  at  last  by  the  slavery  question.  The  southern 
delegates  demanded  a  declaration  in  favor  of  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  protect  slavery  in  the  Territories.  It 
was  all  that  the  Douglas  Democrats  could  then  do  to 
maintain  themselves  in  a  few  northern  States ;  such  a 
declaration  meant  political  suicide  everywhere,  and  they 
voted  it  down.  The  convention  divided  into  two  bodies. 
The  southern  body  adjourned  to  Richmond,  and  the 
northern  and  border  State  convention  to  Baltimore. 
Here  the  northern  delegates,  by  seating  some  delegates 
friendly  to  Douglas,  provoked  a  further  secession  of 
border  State  delegates,  who,  in  company  with  the  Rich- 


206  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

mond  body,  nominated  Breckinridge  and  Lane  for  Pres 
ident  and  Vice-President.  The  remainder  of  the  original 
convention  nominated  Douglas  and  H.  V.  Johnson. 

252.  The  remnant  of  the  old  Whig  and  Know-Nothing 
parties,  now  calling  itself  the  Constitutional  Union  party, 

_     ^  ,.     .  met  at  Baltimore   and   nominated   Bell  and 

Constitutional 

Union  party.  Everett.  The  Republican  convention  met  at 
Republican  Chicago.  Its  "  platform  "  of  1856  had  been 
somewhat  broad  constructionist  in  its  nature 
and  leanings,  but  a  strong  Democratic  element  in  the 
party  had  prevented  it  from  going  too  far  in  this  direc 
tion.  The  election  of  1856  had  shown  that,  with  the 
votes  of  Pennsylvania  and  Illinois,  the  party  would  then 
have  been  successful,  and  the  Democratic  element  was 
now  ready  to  take  almost  anything  which  would  secure 
the  votes  of  these  States.  This  state  of  affairs  will  go  to 
explain  the  nomination  of  Lincoln  of  Illinois,  for  Presi 
dent,  with  Hamlin,  a  former  Democrat,  for  Vice-Presi 
dent,  and  the  declaration  of  the  platform  in  favor  of  a 
protective  tariff.  The  mass  of  the  platform  was  still 
devoted  to  the  necessity  of  excluding  slavery  from  the 
Territories.  To  sum  up  :  the  Bell  party  wished  to  have 
no  discussion  of  slavery :  the  Douglas  Demo- 

The  parties  *    ' 

and  slavery  in  the  crats  rested  on  squatter  sovereignty  and  the 
compromise  of  1850,  but  would  accept  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court;  the  Republicans  de 
manded  that  Congress  should  legislate  for  the  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  the  Territories  ;  and  the  southern  Demo 
crats  demanded  that  Congress  should  legislate  for  the 
protection  of  slavery  in  the  Territories. 

253.  No  candidate  received  a  majority  of  the  popular 
vote,  Lincoln  standing  first  and  Douglas  second.     But 
Lincoln  and  Hamlin  had  a  clear  majority  of  the  elec- 


TENDENCIES  TO  DISUNION.  207 

toral  vote,  and  so  were  elected,  Breckinridge  and  Lane 
coming  next.  It  is  worthy  of  mention  that,  up  to  the  last 
hours  of  Lincoln's  first  term  of  office,  Congress 

\       .  Election  of  I860. 

would  always  have  contained  a  majority  op 
posed  to  him  but  for  the  a-bsence  of  the  members  from 
the  seceding  States.  The  interests  of  the  south  and  even 
of  slavery  were  thus  safe  enough  under  an  anti-slavery 
President.  But  the  drift  of  events  was  too  plain.  Nulli 
fication  had  come  and  gone,  and  the  nation  feared  it  no 
longer.  Even  secession  by  a  single  State  was  now  almost 
out  of  the  question  ;  the  letters  of  southern  governors  in 
1860,  in  consultation  on  the  state  of  affairs,  agree  that 
no  State  would  secede  without  assurances  of  support  by 
others.  If  this  crisis  were  allowed  to  slip  by  without 
action,  even  a  sectional  secession  would  soon  be  impos 
sible.  If  secession  were  a  right,  it  must  be  asserted  now 
or  never. 

254.  Some  assurance  of  united  action  must  have  been 
obtained,  for  South  Carolina  ventured  into  secession. 
The  Democratic  revolution  which,  since  1829, 
had  compelled  the  legislatures  to  give  the 
choice  of  presidential  electors  (§  119)  to  the  people  of 
the  States  had  not  effected  South  Carolina ;  her  electors 
were  still  chosen  by  the  legislature.  That  body,  on  the 
election  day  of  November,  1860,  having  chosen  the  State's 
electors,  remained  in  session  until  the  telegraph  had 
brought  assurances  that  Lincoln  had  secured  a  sufficient 
number  of  electors  to  ensure  his  election ;  it  then  sum 
moned  a  State  convention  and  adjourned.  The  State 
convention,  which  is  a  legislative  body  chosen  for  a 
special  purpose,  met  December  20,  and  unanimously 
passed  an  "  ordinance  of  secession,"  repealing  the  Acts 
by  which  the  State  had  ratified  the  Constitution  and  its 


208  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

amendments  (§  108),  and  dissolving  "the  Union  now 
subsisting  between  South  Carolina  and  other  States, 
under  the  name  of  the  United  States  of  America."  The 
convention  took  all  steps  necessary  to  make  the  State 
ready  for  war,  and  adjourned.  Similar  ordinances  were 
passed  by  conventions  in  Mississippi  (January  9,  1861), 
Florida  (January  10),  Alabama  (January  11),  Georgia 
(January  18),  Louisiana  (January  23),  and  Texas  (Feb 
ruary  1). 

255.   The  opposition  in  the  south  did  not  deny  the 
right   to   secede,   but   the   expediency   of    its   exercise. 
The  argument  Their  effort  was   to  elect   delegates   to   the 
for  secession.   State   conventions   who   would  vote  not   to 
secede.     They  were  beaten,  says  A.  H.  Stephens,  by  the 
cry  that  the  States  "  could  make  better  terms  out  of  the 
Union  than  in  it."     That  is,  the  States  were  to  with 
draw  individually,  suspend  the  functions  of  the  Federal 
Government  within  their  jurisdiction  for  the  time,  con 
sider  maturely  any  proposals  for   guaranties  for  their 
rights  in  the  Union,  and  return  as*  soon  as  satisfactory 
guaranties  should  be  given.     A  second  point  to  be  noted 
is  the  difference  between  the  notions  of  a  State  con 
vention  prevalent  in  the  north  and  in  the 

Action 

at  the  state  con-  south.  The  Northern  State  convention  was 
generally  considered  as  a  preliminary  body, 
whose  action  was  not  complete  or  valid  until  ratified  by 
a  popular  vote.  The  Southern  State  convention  was 
looked  upon  as  the  incarnation  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
State,  and  its  action  was  not  supposed  to  need  a  popular 
ratification.  When  the  conventions  of  the  seceding 
States  had  adopted  the  ordinances  of  secession,  they 
proceeded  to  other  business.  They  appointed  delegates, 
who  met  at  Montgomery,  the  capital  of  Alabama,  Feb- 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  209 

ruary  4,  formed  a  provisional  Constitution  for  the  "  Con 
federate  States,"  chose  a  provisional  President  and  Vice- 
President  (Jefferson  Davis  and  A.  H.  Stephens),  and 
established  an  army,  treasury,  and  other  exec-The  -confeder- 
utive  departments.  The  President  and  Vice-  ate  States-" 
President  were  inaugurated  February  18.  The  permanent 
Constitution,  adopted  in  March,  was  copied  from  that  of 
the  United  States,  with  variations  meant  to  maintain 
State  sovereignty,  to  give  the  cabinet  seats  in  Congress, 
to  prevent  the  grant  of  bounties  or  any  protective  feat 
ures  in  the  tariff  or  the  maintenance  of  internal  improve 
ments  at  general  expense,  and  to  "recognize  and  protect" 
"  the  institution  of  negro  slavery,  as  it  now  exists  in  the 
Confederate  States." 

256.  Under  what  claim  of  constitutional  right  all  this 
was  done  passes  comprehension.  That  a  State  conven 
tion  should  have  the  final  power  of  decision  constitutional 
on  the  question  which  it  was  summoned  to  riehts- 
consider  is  quite  as  radical  doctrine  as  has  yet  been 
heard  of;  that  a  State  convention,  summoned  to  con 
sider  the  one  question  of  secession,  should  go  on,  with 
no  appeal  to  any  further  popular  authority  or  mandate, 
to  send  delegates  to  meet  those  of  other  States  and  form 
a  new  national  Government,  which  could  only  exist  by 
warring  on  the  United  States,  is  a  novel  feature  in 
American  constitutional  law.  It  was  revolution  or 
nothing.  Only  in  Texas,  where  the  call  of  the  State 
convention  was  so  irregular  that  a  popular  vote  could 
hardly  be  escaped,  was  any  popular  vote  allowed. 
Elsewhere,  the  functions  of  the  voter  ceased  when  he 
voted  for  delegates  to  the  State  convention;  he  could 
only  look  on  helplessly  while  that  body  went  on  to 
constitute  him  a  citizen  of  a  new  nation  of  which  he  had 
not  dreamed  when  he  voted. 


210  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

257.  The  border   States   were   in   two   tiers  —  North 
Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas,  next  to  the  seceding 

The  border  States,  and  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
states.  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  next  to  the  free 
States.  None  of  these  were  willing  to  secede.  There 
was,  however,  one  force  which  might  draw  them  into 
secession.  A  State  which  did  not  wish  to  secede,  but 
believed  in  State  sovereignty  and  the  abstract  right  of 
secession,  would  be  inclined  to  take  up  arms  to  resist 
any  attempt  by  the  Federal  Government  to  coerce  a 
seceding  State.  In  this  way,  in  the  following  spring, 
the  original  seven  seceding  States,  were  reinforced  by 
four  of  the  border  States  (§  267),  making  their  final 
number  eleven. 

258.  In  the  north  and  west  surprisingly  little  atten 
tion  was   given   to  the   systematic  course  of  procedure 

Feeling  in  the  along  the  Gulf.  The  people  of  these  sections 
north.  were  very  busy ;  they  had  heard  much  of  this 
talk  before,  and  looked  upon  it  as  a  kind  of  stage-thunder, 
the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  recent  presidential  elec 
tions  ;  and  they  expected  the  difficulty  to  be  settled  in 
some  way.  Republican  politicians,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few,  were  inclined  to  refrain  from  public  declara 
tions  of  intention.  Some  of  them,  such  as  Seward, 
showed  a  disposition  to  let  the  "  erring  sisters  "  depart 
in  peace,  expecting  to  make  the  loss  good  by  accessions 
from  Canada.  A  few,  like  Chandler,  believed  that  there 
would  be  "blood-letting,"  but  most  of  them  were  still 
doubtful  as  to  the  future.  Democratic  politicians  were 
hide-bound  by  their  repetition  of  the  phrase  "  voluntary 
Union  "  (§  180)  ;  they  had  not  yet  hit  upon  the  theory 
which  carried  the  War  Democrats  through  the  final 
struggle,  that  the  sovereign  State  of  New  York  could 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  211 

make  war  upon  the  sovereign  State  of  South  Carolina 
for  the  unfriendly  act  of  secession,  and  that  the  war  was 
waged  by  the  non-seceding  against  the  seceding  States. 
President  Buchanan  publicly  condemned  the  doctrine  of 
secession,  though  he  added  a  confession  of  his  inability 
to  see  how  secession  was  to  be  prevented  if  a  State  should 
be  so  wilful  as   to  attempt  it.     Congress  did   nothing, 
except  to  admit  Kansas  as  a  free  State  and   Admission  of 
adopt  the   protective  Morrill   tariff  (§  276) ;       Kansas. 
even  after  its  members  from  the  seceding  States  Mon-m  tariff  of 
had  withdrawn,  those  who  remained  made  no 
preparations  for  conflict,  and,  at  their  adjournment   in 
March,  1861,  left  the  Federal   Government   naked  and 
helpless  before  its  enemies. 

259.  The  only  sign  of  life  in  the  body  politic,  the 
half-awakened  word  of  warning  from  the  democracy  of 
the  north  and  west,  was  its  choice  of  governors  of  States. 
A  remarkable  group  of  men,  soon  to  be  known  as  the 
"  war  governors,"  —  Washburn  of  Maine,  Fair-  The «-  war  gov. 
banks  of  Vermont,  Goodwin  of  New  Hamp-  emors." 
shire,  Andrew  of  Massachusetts,  Sprague  of  Rhode  Island, 
Buckingham  of  Connecticut,  Morgan  of  New  York,  Olden 
of  New  Jersey,  Curtin  of  Pennsylvania,  Dennison  of  Ohio, 
Morton  of  Indiana,  Yates  of  Illinois,  Blair  of  Michigan, 
Randall  of  Wisconsin,  Kirkwood  of  Iowa,  and  Ramsey 
of  Minnesota,  —  held  the  executive  powers  of  the  North 
ern  States  in  1861-62.  Some  of  these  governors,  such  as 
Andrew  and  Buckingham,  as  they  saw  the  struggle  come 
nearer,  went  so  far  as  to  order  the  purchase  of  warlike 
material  for  their  States  on  their  private  responsibility, 
and  their  action  saved  days  of  time.  And  at  all  times 
they  were  admirably  prompt,  methodical,  clear-sighted, 
and  intensely  devoted  to  their  one  duty. 


212  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

260.  The  little  army  of  the  United  States  had  been 
almost   put   out  of  consideration ;  wherever  its  detach 
ments  could  be  found  in  the  south  they  were  surrounded 
and  forced  to  surrender   and  to   be   transferred  to  the 
north.     After  secession,  and  in  some  of  the  States  even 
before  it,  the  forts,  arsenals,  mints,  custom-houses,  ship 
yards,  and  public  property  of  the  United  States  had  been 

seizure  of     se^ze(^  ^7  tne  authority  of  the  State,  and  these 

united  states  were  held  until  transferred  to  the  new  Con- 

property.      fe^eTg^Q  States  organization.    In  the  first  two 

months  of  1861  the  authority  of  the  United  States  was 

paralyzed  in  seven  States,  and  in  at  least  seven   more 

its  future  authority  seemed  of  very  doubtful  duration. 

261.  Only  a  few  forts,  of  all  the  magnificent  structures 
with  which  the  nation  had  dotted  the  southern  coast, 

Position  Of  the  remained  to  it  —  the  forts  near  Key  West, 
remaining  forts.  Fortress  Monroe  at  the  mouth  of  Chesapeake 
Bay,  Fort  Pickens  at  Pensacola,  and  Fort  Sumter  in 
Charleston  harbor.  Both  the  last-named  were  beleaguered 
by  hostile  batteries,  but  the  administration  of  President 
Buchanan,  intent  on  maintaining  the  peace  until  the  new 
administration  should  come  in,  instructed  their  command 
ing  officers  to  refrain  from  any  acts  tending  to  open  con 
flict.  The  Federal  officers,  therefore,  were  obliged  to 
look  idly  on  while  every  preparation  was  made  for  their 
destruction,  and  even  while  a  vessel  bearing  supplies  for 
Fort  Sumter  was  driven  back  by  the  batteries  between  it 
and  the  sea. 

262.  The  divergence  between  the  two  sections  of  the 
country  had  thus  passed  into  disunion,  and  was  soon  to 
Slavery  and  dis-  pass  into  open  hostility.     The  legal  recogni- 

union.        ^on  Of  the  custom  of  slavery,  acting  upon  and 
reacted  upon  by  every  step  in  their  economic  development 


TENDENCIES   TO  DISUNION.  213 

and  every  difference  in  their  natural  characteristics,  sur 
roundings,  and  institutions,  had  carried  north  and  south 
further  and  faster  apart,  until  the  elements  of  a  distinct 
nationality  had  appeared  in  the  latter.  Slavery  had  had 
somewhat  the  same  effect  on  the  south  that  democracy 
had  had  on  the  colonies.  In  the  latter  case  the  aristoc 
racy  of  the  mother  country  had  made  a  very  feeble 
struggle  to  maintain  the  unity  of  its  empire.  It  remained 
to  be  seen,  in  the  American  case,  whether  democracy 
would  do  better. 


214  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


THE   CIVIL  WAR. 
1861-65. 

263.  SECESSION  had  taken  away  many  of  the  men  who 
had  for  years  managed  the  Federal  Government,  and  who 
understood  its  workings.     Lincoln's  party  was  in  power 
for  the  first  time ;  his  officers  were  new  to  the  routine  of 
Federal  administration;  and  the  circumstances  with  which 
they  were  called  upon  to  deal  were  such  as  to  daunt  any 

Embarrassments  SP^^  The  Government  had  become  so  nearly 
°fthe  bankrupt  in  the  closing  days  of  Buchanan's 
administration  that  it  had  only  escaped  by 
paying  double  interest,  and  that  by  the  special  favor  of 
the  New  York  banks,  which  obtained  in  return  the  ap 
pointment  of  Dix  as  secretary  of  the  treasury.  The  army 
had  been  almost  broken  up  by  the  captures  of  men  and 
material  and  by  resignations  of  competent  and  trusted 
officers.  The  navy  had  come  to  such  a  pass  that,  in  Feb 
ruary,  1861,  a  house  committee  reported  that  only  two 
vessels,  one  of  twenty,  the  other  of  two  guns,  were  avail 
able  for  the  defence  of  the  entire  Atlantic  coast.  And, 
to  complicate  all  difficulties,  a  horde  of  clamorous  office- 
seekers  crowded  Washington. 

264.  Before  many  weeks  of  Lincoln's  administration 
had  passed,  the  starting  of  an  expedition  to  provision 
Fort  Suinter  brought  on  an  attack  by  the  batteries  around 


THE   CIVIL    WAR.  215 


the  fort,  and,  after  a  bombardment  of  thirty-six  hours, 
the  fort  surrendered  (April  14,  1861).     It  is    Surrender  of 
not  necessary  to  rehearse  the  familiar  story   JjJJ^J'J* 
of  the  outburst  of  feeling  which  followed  this        north, 
event  and  the  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln  calling 
for  volunteers,  the  mustering  of  men,  the  eagerness  of 
States,  cities,  and  villages  to  hurry  volunteers  forward 
and  to  supply  money  to  their  own   Government  in  its 
need.      The  75,000  volunteers   called  for  were  supplied 
three  or  four  times  over,  and  those  who  were  refused  felt 
the  refusal  as  a  personal  deprivation. 

265.  There  had  been  some  belief  in  the  south  that  the 
north-west  would  take  no  part  in  the  impending  conflict, 
and  that  its  people  could  be  persuaded  to  keep 

P    .         -n  i     ,.  ..T      ,T  ..  -,..       The  north-west. 

up  friendly  relations  with  the  new  nationality 
until  the  final  treaty  of  peace  should  establish  all  the 
fragments  of  the  late  Union  upon  an  international  basis. 
In  the  spring  months  of  1861  Douglas,  who  had  been 
denounced  as  the  tool  of  the  southern  slave-holders,  was 
spending  the  closing  days  of  life  in  expressing  the  deter 
mination  of  the  north-west  that  it  would  never  submit  to 
have  "  a  line  of  custom-houses  "  between  it  and  the  ocean. 
The  batteries  which  Confederate  authority  was  erecting 
on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  were  fuel  to  the  flame. 
Far-off  California,  which  had  been  considered  neutral  by 
all  parties,  pronounced  as  unequivocally  for  the  national 
authority. 

266.  The  shock  of  arms  put  an  end  to  opposition  in 
the  south  as  well.     The  peculiar  isolation  of  life  in  the 
south  precluded  the  more  ignorant  voter  from  „  Following  the 
any  comparisons  of  the  power  of  his   State      states." 
with  any  other ;  to  him  it  was  almost  inconceivable  that 
his  State  should  own  or  have  a  superior.     The  better 


216  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

educated  men,  of  wider  experience,  had  been  trained  to 
think  State  sovereignty  the  foundation  of  civil  liberty, 
and,  when  their  State  spoke,  they  felt  bound  to  "  follow 
their  State."  The  President  of  the  Confederate  States 
issued  his  call  for  men,  and  it  was  also  more  than  met. 
On  both  sides  of  the  line  armed  men  were  hurrying  to 
a  meeting. 

267.  Lincoln's  call  for  troops  met  with  an  angry  re 
ception  wherever  the  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  had 

The  border  a  foothold.  The  governors  of  the  border 
states-  States  (§  257)  generally  returned  it  with  a 
refusal  to  furnish  any  troops.  Two  States,  North  Car 
olina  and  Arkansas,  seceded  and  joined  the  Confederate 
States.  In  two  others,  Virginia  and  Tennessee,  the 
State  politicians  formed  "military  leagues"  with  the 
Confederacy,  allowing  Confederate  troops  to  take  pos 
session  of  the  States,  and  then  submitted  the  question 
of  secession  to  "  popular  vote."  The  secession  of  these 
States  was  thus  accomplished,  and  Richmond  became  the 
Confederate  capital.  The  same  process  was  attempted 
in  Missouri,  but  failed,  and  the  State  remained  loyal. 
The  politician  class  in  Maryland  and  Kentucky  took  the 
extraordinary  course  of  attempting  to  maintain  neu 
trality  ;  but  the  growing  power  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  soon  enabled  the  people  of  the  two  States  to 
resume  control  of  their  governments  and  give  consistent 
support  to  the  Union.  Kentucky,  however,  had  troops 
in  the  Confederate  armies ;  and  one  of  her  citizens,  the 
late  Yice-President,  John  C.  Breckinridge,  left  his  place 
in  the  senate  and  became  an  officer  in  the  Confederate 
service.  Delaware  cast  her  lot  from  the  first  with  the 
Union. 

268.  The  first  blood  of  the  war  was  shed  in  the  streets 


THE   CIVIL    WAR.  217 


of  Baltimore,  when  a  mob  attempted  to  stop  Massa 
chusetts  troops  on  their  way  to  Washington 
(April  19).  For  a  time  there  was  difficulty 
in  getting  troops  through  Maryland  because  of  the 
active  hostility  of  a  part  of  its  people,  but  this  was 
overcome,  and  the  national  capital  was  made  secure. 
The  Confederate  lines  had  been  pushed  up  to  Manassas 
Junction,  about  thirty  miles  from  Washington.  When 
Congress,  called  into  special  session  by  the  President  for 
July  4,  came  together,  the  outline  of  the  Confederate 
States  had  been  fixed.  Their  line  of  defence  held  the 
left  bank  of  the  Potomac  from  Fortress  Monroe  nearly 
to  Washington ;  thence,  at  a  distance  of  some  thirty 
miles  from  the  river,  to  Harpers  Ferry ;  thence  through 
the  mountains  of  western  Virginia  and  the  southern  part 
of  Kentucky,  crossing  the  Mississippi  a  little  below 
Cairo ;  thence  through  southern  Missouri  to  the  eastern 
border  of  Kansas;  and  thence  south-west  through  the 
Indian  Territory  and  along  the  northern  boundary  of 
Texas  to  the  Bio  Grande.  The  length  of  the  line,  in 
cluding  also  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coasts,  has  been 
estimated  at  11,000  miles.  The  territory  within  it  com 
prised"  about  800,000  square  miles,  with  a  population  of 
over  9,000,000  and  great  natural  resources.  Its  cotton 
was  almost  essential  to  the  manufactories  of  the  world ; 
in  exchange  for  it  every  munition  of  war  could  be  pro 
cured  ;  and  it  was  hardly  possible  to  blockade 
a  coast  over  3000  miles  in  length,  on  which  T 
the  blockading  force  had  but  one  port  of  refuge,  and 
that  about  the  middle  of  the  line.  Nevertheless  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  announcing  the 
blockade  of  the  southern  coast,  a  proclamation  from 
President  Davis  appearing  with  it,  offering  letters  of 


218  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

marque  and  reprisal  against  the  commerce  of  the  United 
States  to  private  vessels.  The  news  brought  out  proc 
lamations  of  neutrality  from  Great  Britain  and  France, 
and,  according  to  subsequent  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  made  the  struggle  a  civil  war,  though  the  minority 
held  that  this  did  not  occur  legally  until  the  Act  of 
Congress  of  July  13,  1861,  authorizing  the  President,  in 
case  of  insurrection,  to  shut  up  ports  and  suspend  com 
mercial  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  revolted 
district. 

269.  The  President  found  himself  compelled  to  assume 
powers  never  granted  to  the  executive  authority,  trusting 
to  the  subsequent  action  of  Congress  to  validate  his  action. 
He  had  to  raise  and  support  armies  and  navies ;  he  even 
had  to  authorize  seizures  of  necessary  property,  of  rail 
road  and  telegraph  lines,  arrests  of  suspected  persons,  and 

Suspension  of  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in 
habeas  corpus.  certain  districts.  Congress  supported  him, 
and  proceeded  in  1863  to  give  the  President  power  to 
suspend  the  writ  anywhere  in  the  United  States,  which 
he  proceeded  to  do  (§  115).  The  Supreme  Court,  after 
the  war,  decided  that  no  branch  of  the  Government  had 
power  to  suspend  the  writ  in  districts  where  the  courts 
were  open, — that  the  privilege  of  the  writ  might  be  sus 
pended  as  to  persons  properly  involved  in  the  war,  but 
that  the  writ  was  still  to  issue,  the  court  deciding  whether 
the  person  came  within  the  classes  to  whom  the  suspen 
sion  applied.  This  decision,  however,  did  not  come  until 
"  arbitrary  arrests/'  as  they  were  called,  had  been  a  feature 
of  the  entire  war.  A  similar  suspension  of  the  writ  took 
place  in  the  Confederate  States. 

270.  When  Congress  met  (July  4,  1861),  the  absence 
of  southern  members  had  made  it  heavily  ^Republican. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  219 


It  decided  to  consider  no  business  but  that   connected 
with,  the  war,  authorized  a  loan  and  the  raising  of  500,000 
volunteers,  and  made  confiscation  of  property 
a   penalty   of    rebellion.     While   it  was    in 
session  the  first  serious  battle  of  the  war  — 
Bull   Kun,   or  Manassas  —  took   place   (July   21),   and 
resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the  Federal  army.     Both  ar 
mies  were  as  yet  so  ill-trained  that  the  victors  gained 
nothing  from  their  success.     In  the  west  the 
battle  of  Wilson's  Creek,  near  Springfield,  Mo. 
(August  10),  was  either  a  drawn  battle  or  a  Confederate 
victory ;  but  here  also  the  victors  rather  lost  than  gained 
ground  after  it.   The  captures  of  Fort  Hatteras,          ^ 
K  C.    (August  29),  and  Port  Eoyal,   S.  C.     totftoytf, 
(November  7),  gave  the  blockading  fleets  two    The  "Trent 
important  harbors  of  refuge.    The  over-zealous 
action  of  a  naval  officer  in  taking  the  Confederate  envoys 
Mason  and  Slidell  out  of  a  British  mail-steamer  sailing 
between  two  neutral  ports  almost  brought  about  a  col 
lision  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  in 
November.      But    the    American    precedents    were   all 
against  the  United  States  (§  172),  and  the  envoys  were 
given  up. 

271.  General  McClellan,  in  the  early  months  of  the 
war,   had   led  a  force   of    western    troops    across    the 
Ohio    river,    entered   western    Virginia,    and    Armyofthe 
beaten  the   Confederate    armies    in    several     Potomac, 
battles.     After  the  battle  of  Bull  Eun  he  was  called  to 
Washington  and  put  in  command  of  all  the  armies  on 
the  retirement  of  Scott.      His  genius  for  organization, 
and  the  unbounded  confidence  of  the   people   in   him, 
enabled  him  to  form  the  troops  at  and  near  Washington 
into  the  first  great  army  of  the  war — the  army  of  the 


220  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Potomac.  It  was  held,  however,  too  much  in  idleness  to 
suit  the  eagerness  of  the  people  and  the  administration ; 
and  the  dissatisfaction  grew  louder  as  the  winter  of 
1861-62  passed  away  without  any  forward  movement 
(§  284). 

272.  If  the  army  was  idle,  Congress  was  not.     The 
broad-construction  tendencies  of  the  party  showed  them 
selves  more  plainly  as  the  war  grew  more  serious ;  there 
was  an  increasing  disposition  to  cut  every  knot  by  legis 
lation,  with  less  regard  to  the  constitutionality  of  the 

legislation.      A  paper    currency,    commonly 

Paper  currency         *  if     i       „  -,        L     -,  \ 

known  as  "green-backs,  was  adopted  and 
very'  made  legal  tender  (February  25,  1862).  The 
first  symptoms  of  a  disposition  to  attack  slavery  ap 
peared  :  slavery  was  prohibited  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  and  the  Territories;  the  army  was  forbidden  to 
surrender  escaped  slaves  to  their  owners :  and  slaves  of 
insurgents  were  ordered  to  be  confiscated.  In  addition 
to  a  Homestead  Act,  giving  public  lands  to  actual  settlers 
at  reduced  rates  (§  200),  Congress  began  a  further  devel 
opment  of  the  system  of  granting  public  lands  to  railway 
corporations. 

273.  The  railway  system  of  the  United  States  was  but 
twenty  years  old  in  1850  (§  230),  but  it  had  become  to 

assume  some  consistency.     The  day  of  short 

Railways  in  I860.          -,,.  ,-IT  11  i,n 

and  .disconnected  lines  had  passed,  and  the 
connections  which  were  to  develop  into  railway  systems 
had  appeared.  Consolidation  of  smaller  companies  had 
begun ;  the  all-rail  route  across  the  State  of  New  York 
was  made  up  of  more  than  a  dozen  original  companies  at 
its  consolidation  in  1853.  The  Erie  railway  was  formed 
in  1851;  and  another  western  route — the  Pennsylvania 
—  was  formed  in  1854.  These  were  at  least  the  germs 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  221 


of  great  trunk  lines  (§  312).  The  cost  of  American  rail 
ways  has  been  only  from  one-half  to  one-fourth  of  the 
cost  of  European  railways ;  but  an  investment  in  a  far 
western  railway  in  1850-60  was  an  extra-hazardous  risk. 
Not  only  did  social  conditions  make  any  form  of  business 
hazardous ;  the  new  railway  often  had  to  enter  a  terri 
tory  bare  of  population,  and  there  create  its  own  towns, 
farms,  and  traffic.  Whether  it  could  do  so  was  so  doubt 
ful  as  to  make  additional  inducements  to  capital  neces 
sary.  The  means  attempted  by  Congress  in  1850,  in  the 
case  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  was  to 

Land  grants. 

grant  public  lands  to  the  corporation,  reserv 
ing  to  the  United  States  the  alternate  sections.  The 
expectation  was  that  the  railway,  for  the  purpose  of 
building  up  traffic,  would  sell  lands  to  actual  settlers  at 
low  rates,  and  that  the  value  of  the  reserved  lands  would 
thus  be  increased.  At  first  grants  were  made  to  the 
States  for  the  benefit  of  the  corporations ;  the  Act  of 
1862  made  the  grant  directly  to  the  corporation. 

274.  The  vital  military  and  political  necessity  of  an 
immediate  railway  connection  with  the  Pacific  coast  was 
hardly  open  to  doubt  in  1862 ;  but  the  neces-  The  Pacific 
sity  hardly  justified  the  terms  which  were  railways. 
offered  and  taken.  The  Union  Pacific  Railroad  was  in 
corporated  ;  the  United  States  Government  was  to  issue 
to  it  bonds ;  on  the  completion  of  each  forty  miles,  to  the 
amount  of  §16,000  per  mile,  to  be  a  first  mortgage ; 
through  Utah  and  Nevada,  the  aid  was  to  be  doubled, 
and  for  some  300  miles  of  mountain  building  to  be 
trebled;  and,  in  addition  to  this,  alternate  sections  of 
land  were  granted.  The  land-grant  system,  thus  begun, 
was  carried  on  in  the  cases  of  a  large  number  of  other 
roads,  the  largest  single  grants  being  those  of  47,000,000 


222  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

acres  to  the  Northern  Pacific  (1864)  and  of  42,000,000 
to  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  line  (1866). 

275.  Specie   payments    had    been   suspended    almost 
everywhere  towards  the  end  of  1861;  but  the  price  of 

gold  was  but  102.5  at  the  beginning  of  1862. 

Prices  in  paper.     .  .    -\r          •*.  •         •  i 

About  May  its  price  in  paper  currency  began 
to  rise.  It  touched  170  during  the  next  year,  and  285  in 
1864;  but  the  real  price  probably  never  went  much 
above  250.  As  gold  rose,  specie  disappeared.  Other 
articles  felt  the  influence  in  currency  prices.  Mr.  D.  A. 
Wells,  in  1866,  estimated  that  prices  and  rents  had  risen 
ninety  per  cent,  since  1861,  while  wages  had  not  risen 
more  than  sixty  per  cent. 

276.  The  duties  on  imports  were  driven  higher  than 
the  Morrill  tariff  had  ever  contemplated  (§  258).     The 

Tariff  and  average  rat 68,  which  had  been  eighteen  per 
internal  revenue  cent,  on  dutiable  articles  and  twelve  per  cent, 
on  the  aggregate  in  1860-61,  rose,  before  the 
end  of  the  war,  to  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  on  dutiable 
articles  and  thirty-five  per  cent,  on  the  aggregate. 
Domestic  manufactures  sprang  into  new  life  under  such 
hothouse  encouragement;  every  one  who  had  spare 
wealth  converted  it  into  manufacturing  capital.  The 
probability  of  such  a  result  had  been  the  means  of 
getting  votes  for  an  increased  tariff;  free-traders  had 
voted  for  it  as  well  as  protectionists.  For  the  tariff  was 
only  a  means  of  getting  capital  into  positions  in  which 
taxation  could  be  applied  to  it,  and  the  "internal 
revenue"  taxation  was  merciless  beyond  precedent.  The 
annual  increase  of  wealth  from  capital  was  then  about 
$550,000,000 ;  the  internal  revenue  taxation  on  it  rose 
in  1866  to  $310,000,000,  or  nearly  sixty  per  cent.  Even 
after  the  war  the  taxation  was  kept  up  unflinchingly, 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  223 


until  the  reduction  of  the  national  debt  had  brought  it 
to  a  point  where  it  was  evidently  at  the  mercy  of  time 
(§  322). 

277.  The  stress  of  all  this  upon  the  poor  must  have 
been  great,  but  it  was  relieved  in  part  by  the  bond 
system  on  which  the  war  was  conducted 
(§  322).  While  the  armies  and  navies  were 
shooting  off  large  blocks  of  the  crops  of  1880  or  1890, 
work  and  wages  were  abundant  for  all  who  were  compe 
tent  for  them.  It  is  true,  then,  that  the  poor  paid  most 
of  the  cost  of  the  war ;  it  is  also  true  that  the  poor  had 
shared  in  that  anticipation  of  the  future  which  had  been 
forced  on  the  country,  and  that,  when  the  drafts  on  the 
future  came  to  be  redeemed,  it  was  done  mainly  by  taxa 
tion  on  luxuries.  The  destruction  of  a  northern  railroad 
meant  more  work  for  northern  iron  mills  and  their 
workmen.  The  destruction  of  a  southern  road  was  an 
unmitigated  injury ;  it  had  to  be  made  good  at  once,  by 
paper  issues ;  the  south  could  make  no  drafts  on  the 
future,  by  bond  issues,  for  the  blockade  had  put  cotton 
out  of  the  game,  and  southern  bonds  were  hardly  salable. 
Every  expense  had  to  be  met  by  paper  issues;  Paper  issues  in 
each  issue  forced  prices  higher ;  every  rise  in  the  south. 
prices  called  for  an  increased  issue  of  paper,  with 
increased  effects  for  evil.  A  Rebel  War-Clerk's  Diary 
gives  the  following  as  the  prices  in  the  Richmond 
market  for  May,  1864  :  "  Boots,  two  hundred  dollars ; 
coats,  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars;  pantaloons,  one 
hundred  dollars ;  shoes,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars ;  flour,  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  per 
barrel ;  meal,  sixty  to  eighty  dollars  per  bushel ;  bacon, 
nine  dollars  per  pound ;  no  beef  in  market ;  chickens, 
thirty  dollars  per  pair ;  shad,  twenty  dollars  ^  potatoes, 


224  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

twenty-five  dollars  per  bushel;  turnip  greens,  four 
dollars  per  peck ;  white  beans,  four  dollars  per  quart  or 
one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  per  bushel;  butter, 
fifteen  dollars  per  pound ;  lard  same ;  wood,  fifty  dollars 
per  cord."  How  the  rise  in  salaries  and  wages,  always 
far  slower  than  other  prices,  could  meet  such  prices  as 
these,  one  must  be  left  to  imagine.  It  can  only  be  said 
that  most  of  the  burden  was  really  sustained  by  the 
women  of  the  south. 

278.  The  complete  lack  of  manufactures  told  heavily 
against   the   south   from  the  beginning.     As  men  were 

drawn  from  agriculture  in  the  north  and 
west,  the  increased  demand  for  labor  was 
shaded  off  into  an  increased  demand  for  agricultural 
machinery  (§  231)  ;  every  increased  percentage  of  power 
in  reaping-machines  liberated  so  many  men  for  service 
at  the  front.  The  reaping-machines  of  the  south  —  the 
slaves  —  were  incapable  of  any  such  improvement,  and, 
besides,  required  the  presence  of  a  portion  of  the  pos 
sible  fighting-men  at  home  to  watch  them.  There  is 
an  evident  significance  in  the  exemption  from  military 
duty  in  the  Confederate  States  of  "  one  agriculturist  on 
such  farm,  where  there  is  no  white  male  adult  not  liable 
to  duty,  employing  fifteen  able-bodied  slaves  between 
ten  and  fifty  years  of  age."  But,  to  the  honor  of  the 
enslaved  race,  no  insurrection  took  place. 

279.  The  pressing  need  for  men  in  the  army  made  the 
Confederate   Congress   utterly  unable  to  withstand  the 

Confederate    growth   of  executive  power.     Its  bills  were 
congress  and  prepared  by  the  cabinet,  and  the   action  of 

President.        t.  .,  mi 

Congress  was  quite  perfunctory.  Ine  suspen 
sion  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  the  vast  powers 
granted  to  President  Davis,  or  assumed  by  him  under  the 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  225 


plea  of  military  necessity,  with  the  absence  of  a  watchful 
and  well-informed  public  opinion,  made  the  Confederate 
Government  by  degrees  almost  a  despotism.  It  was  not 
until  the  closing  months  of  the  war  that  the  expiring 
Confederate  Congress  mustered  up  courage  enough  to 
oppose  the  President's  will.  The  organized  and  even  radi 
cal  opposition  to  the  war  in  the  north,  the  meddlesomeness 
of  Congress  and  its  "  committees  on  the  conduct  of  the 
war,"  were  no  doubt  unpleasant  to  Lincoln ;  but  they 
carried  the  country  through  the  crisis  without  the  effects 
visible  in  the  south. 

280.  Another  Act  of  Federal  legislation — the  National 
Bank  Act  —  should  be  mentioned  here,  as  it  was  closely 
connected  with  the  sale  of  bonds  (February  National  bank- 
25,  1863).     The  banks  were  to  be  organized,     ins  system. 
and,  on  depositing  United  States  bonds  at  Washington, 
were  to  be  permitted  to  issue  notes  up  to  ninety  per  cent, 
of  the  value  of  the  bonds  deposited.     As  the  redemption 
of  the  notes  is  thus  assured,  they  circulate  without  ques 
tion  all  over  the  United  States.     By  a  subsequent  Act 
the  remaining  State  bank  circulation  was  taxed  out  of 
existence.     The  national  banks  are  still  in  operation ;  but 
the  disappearance  of  United  States  bonds  threatens  their 
continuance. 

281.  At  the  beginning  of  1862  the  lines  of  demarcation 
between  the  two  powers  had  become  plainly  marked.    The 
western  part  of  Virginia  had  separated  itself   Admission  of 
from  the  parent  State,  and  was  admitted  as  a  West  virs'nia. 
State  (1863)  under  the  name  of  West  Virginia.     It  was 
certain  that  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri 
had  been  saved  to  the  Union,  and  that  the  battle  was 
to  be  fought  out  in  the  territory  to  the  south  of  them. 
In  the  west  Grant,  commanding  a  part  of  Buell's  gen- 


226  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

eral  forces,  moved  up  the  Tennessee  river  and  broke  the 
centre  of  the  long  Confederate  line  by  the  capture  of 
Forts  Henry  and  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  (February,  1862). 

Doneison.  ry^Q  conapse  of  the  Confederate  line  opened 
the  way  for  the  occupation  of  almost  all  western  Ten 
nessee,  including  its  capital,  and  the  theatre  of  war  was 
moved  far  forward  to  the  southern  boundary  of  the  State, 
an  advance  of  fully  200  miles  into  the  heart  of  the  Con 
federacy.  It  had  been  shown  already  that  the  successful 
officers  were  to  be  those  from  West  Point ;  but  even  they 
were  getting  their  first  experience  in  the  handling  of 
large  masses  of  men.  Grant  and  Sherman  owed  a  part  of 
that  experience  to  the  military  genius  of  the  Confederate 
commander,  Albert  S.  Johnston,  whose  sudden  attack  on 

Pittsburgh     their  army  at  Pittsburgh  Landing  (April  6) 

Landing,  brought  on  the  first  great  battle  of  the  war. 
The  Federal  forces  held  out  stubbornly  until  the  arrival 
of  Buell's  advance  guard  relieved  the  pressure,  and  the 
Confederates  were  driven  back  to  Corinth,  with  the 
heavy  loss  of  their  commander,  who  had  been  mortally 
wounded.  Steady  advances  brought  the  Union  armies  to 
Corinth,  an  important  railroad  centre,  in  June ; 
and  the  Mississippi  was  opened  up  as  far  as 
Memphis  by  these  successes  of  the  armies  and  by  the 
hard  fighting  of  the  gunboats  at  Island  Number  Ten  and 
other  places.  At  the  northern  boundary  of  the  State  of 
Mississippi  the  Union  advance  stopped  for  a  time,  but 
what  had  been  gained  was  held. 

282.  At  the  same  time  the  Mississippi  was  opened  in 
part  from  below.  A  great  naval  expedition  under  Far- 
ragut  and  Porter,  with  a  land  force  under  Butler,  sailing 
from  Fort  Monroe,  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
Farragut  ran  past  the  forts  above  the  mouth  of  the  river, 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  227 


sank   the   ironclads  which  met  him,  and  captured  New 
Orleans  (April  25).     The  land  forces  then 

i  •  n  -i  i   ^        e  i   -i      J^T  New  Orleans. 

took  possession  of  it  and  the  forts,  while  the 
fleet  cleared  the  river  of  obstacles  and  Confederate  ves 
sels  as  far  as  Port   Hudson  and  Vicksburg,  where  the 
Confederate  works  were  situated  on  bluffs  too  high  for  a 
naval  attack. 

283.  The  energy  of  the  combatants  had  already  brought 
ironclad  vessels  to  the  test  which  they  had  not  yet  met 
elsewhere,  that  of  actual  combat.     Western  ingenuity  had 
produced  a  simple  and  excellent  type  of  river  ironclad  by 
cutting  down  river  steamers  and  plating  them  with  rail 
road  or  other   iron.     The   type  needed  for  the  rougher 
Eastern  waters  was  different,  and  the  Confederates  con 
verted  the  frigate  "  Merrimac,"  captured  at  The  "Monitor" 
Norfolk,  into  an  ironclad  of  a  more  sea-going  and  "Merrimac-" 
type.   The  battle  between  her  and  the  "  Monitor  "  (March 
8),  in  Hampton  Eoads,  was  indecisive ;  but  the  "  Merri 
mac  "  was  driven  back  to  Norfolk,  the  blockade  and  the 
cities  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  which  had  seemed  to  be  at 
its  mercy,  were  saved,  and  the  day  of  wooden  war-vessels 
was  seen  to  be  over.     Before   the  end  of  the  following 
year  there  were  75  ironclads  in  the  United  States  navy  ; 
the  number  of  vessels  had  increased  to  588,  with  4443 
guns,  and  35,000  men. 

284.  The  hundred  miles  between  Washington  and  Eich- 
mond  are  crossed  by  numberless  streams,  flowing  south 
east,  and  offering  strong  defensive  positions,  of  The  peninsuia 
which  the  Confederates  had  taken  advantage,     campaign. 
McClellan  (§  271)  therefore  wished  to  move  his  army  to 
Fort  Monroe  and  attack  Richmond  from  that  point,  on 
the  ground  of  Cornwallis's  campaign  of  1781.     He  be 
lieved  that  such  a  movement  would  force  the  Confederate 


228  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

armies  away  from  Washington  to  meet  him.  The  adminis 
tration,  believing  that  such  a  movement  would  only  open 
the  way  for  the  enemy  to  capture  Washington  —  a  more 
valuable  prize  than  Bichmond  —  gave  directions  that  a 
part  of  McClellan's  force,  under  McDowell,  should  take 
the  overland  route  as  far  as  Fredericksburg,  while  the 
rest,  under  McClellan,  were  moving  up  the  peninsula 
towards  Eichmond,  and  that,  as  the  enemy  withdrew  to 
meet  the  latter,  a  junction  of  the  two  divisions  should 
take  place,  so  as  to  carry  out  McClellan's  plans  without 
uncovering  Washington.  But  a  month  was  spent  in  be 
sieging  Yorktown ;  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  form 
the  junction  with  McDowell  it  involved  the  separation  of 
the  two  wings  by  the  little  river  Chickahominy ;  and  in 
May  the  spring  rains  turned  the  little  stream  into  a  wide 
river,  and  the  army  was  divided,  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
the  Confederate  commander,  at  once  attacked  the  weaker 
Seven  Pines  and  wing  at  Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks,  but  was 

Fair  oaks,  beaten,  and  was  himself  wounded  and  com 
pelled  to  leave  the  service  for  a  time.  This  event  gave 
his  place  to  Eobert  E.  Lee,  whose  only  military  service 
in  the  war  up  to  this  time  had  been  a  failure  in  western 
Virginia.  He  was  now  to  begin,  in  conjunction  with 
Thomas  J.  ("Stonewall")  Jackson,  a  series  of  brilliant 
campaigns. 

285.  From  Staunton,  one  hundred  miles  west  of  Eich 
mond,  the  Shenandoah  valley  extends  north-east  to  the 
Potomac,  whence  there  is  an  easy  march  of 

Jackson's  raid.  ,,  .,  ,  -jT7-      ,   . 

seventy-five  miles  south-east  to  Washington. 
Jackson  struck  the  Union  forces  in  the  valley,  drove 
them  to  the  Potomac,  and  excited  such  alarm  in  Wash 
ington  that  McDowell's  troops  were  hastily  withdrawn 
from  Fredericksburg.  Having  thus  spoiled  McClellan's 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  229 


plan  of  junction,  and  taken  some  40,000  men  from  him, 
Jackson  hurried  to  Eichmond.  Lee  met  him  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  the  two  armies 
attacked  McClellan's  right  wing  at  Gaines's  Mill,  and 
cut  the  connection  between  it  and  its  base  of  supplies  on 
the  York  river  (June  26).  Unable  to  reunite  his  wings 
and  regain  his  base,  McClellan  was  forced  to  draw  his 
right  wing  south,  and  attempt  to  establish  another  base 
on  the  James  river.  Lee  and  Jackson  followed  hard  on 
his  retreat,  and  the  "  seven  days'  battles  "  were  The  -  seven 
the  most  desperate  of  the  war  up  to  this  days' battles-" 
time,  the  principal  battles  being  those  of  Savage's  Sta 
tion  (June  29),  Glendale  (June  30),  and  Malvern  Hill 
(July  1).  The  last  ended  the  series,  for  McClellan  had 
reached  the  James,  and  his  army  had  fixed  itself  in  a 
position  from  which  it  could  not  be  driven. 

286.  Pope  had  succeeded  McDowell,  and  Jackson  at 
tacked  and  beat  him  on  the  battle-ground  of  Bull  Eun 
(August  29),  driving  his  army  towards  Wash-       Pope's 
ington.     McClellan  was  at  once  recalled  to     campaign. 
defend  the  capital.     As  he  withdrew  from  the  peninsula, 
Lee  joined  Jackson,  and  the  whole  Confederate  army, 
passing  to  the  north-west  of  Washington,  began  the  first 
invasion  of  the  north.     As  it  passed  through  the  moun 
tains  of  north-western  Maryland,  the  army  of  the  Poto 
mac,  which  had  been  brought  up  through  Maryland  in 
pursuit,  reached  its  rear,  and  forced  it  to  turn  and  fight 
the  battle  of  Antietam,  or  Sharpsburg,  Sep 
tember  17.     Both  sides  claimed  the  victory, 
but  Lee  was  compelled  to  recross  the  Potomac  to  his 
former  position.     McClellan  was  blamed  for  the  slow 
ness  of  his  pursuit  and  was  removed,  Burnside  becom 
ing  his  successor.      The  only  great  event  of  his  term 


230  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


of  command  was  his  attempt  to  storm  the  heights  behind 

Fredericks-      Fredericksburg  (December  13)  and  the  ter- 

burg.         rjbie  slaughter  of  his  defeat.     Hooker  was 

then  put  in  his  place.     The  year  1862  thus  closed  with 

the  opposing  armies  in  about  the  same  positions  as  at 

the  beginning  of  the  war. 

287.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  people  and 
leaders  of  the  north  had  not  desired  to  interfere  with 
slavery,  but  circumstances  had  been  too  strong  for  them. 
Lincoln  had  declared  that  he  meant  to  save  the  Union  as 
he  best  could,  —  by  preserving  slavery,  by  destroying  it, 
or  by  destroying  part  and  preserving  part  of  it.  Just 
The  Emancipation  after  the  battle  of  Antietam  he  issued  his 
Proclamation,  proclamation  calling  on  the  revolted  States  to 
return  to  their  allegiance  before  the  following  January  1, 
otherwise  their  slaves  would  be  declared  free  men.  No 
State  returned,  and  the  threatened  declaration  was  issued 
January  1,  1863.  As  President,  Lincoln  could  issue  no 
such  declaration ;  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies 
and  navies  of  the  United  States,  he  could  issue  directions 
only  as  to  the  territory  within  his  lines ;  but  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  applied  only  to  territory  outside 
of  his  lines.  It  has  therefore  been  debated  whether  the 
proclamation  was  in  reality  of  any  force.  It  may  fairly 
be  taken  as  an  announcement  of  the  policy  which  was  to 
guide  the  army,  and  as  a  declaration  of  freedom  taking 
effect  as  the  lines  advanced.  At  all  events,  this  was 
its  exact  effect.  Its  international  importance  was  far 
greater.  The  locking  up  of  the  world's  source  of  cotton- 
supply  had  been  a  general  calamity,  and  the  Confederate 
Government  and  people  had  steadily  expected  that  the 
English  and  French  Governments,  or  at  least  one  of 
them,  would  intervene  in  the  war  for  the  purpose  of 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  231 


raising  the  blockade  and  releasing  the  southern  cotton. 
The  conversion  of  the  struggle  into  a  crusade  against 
slavery  made  intervention  impossible  for  Governments 
whose  peoples  had  now  a  controlling  influence  on  their 
policy,  and  intelligence  enough  to  understand  the  issue 
which  had  now  been  made. 

288.  Confederate  agents  in  England  were  numerous 
and  active.     Taking  advantage  of  every  loophole  in  the 
British   Foreign   Enlistment  Act  they  built    confederate 
and  sent  to  sea  the  "  Alabama  "  and  "  Florida/'     privateers. 
which  for  a  time  almost  drove  American  commerce  from 
the  ocean.      Whenever   they   were   closely   pursued   by 
United  States  vessels  they  took  refuge  in  neutral  ports 
until  a  safe  opportunity  occurred  to  put  to  sea  again. 
Another,  the  "  Georgia,"  was  added  in  1863.     All  three 
were  destroyed  in  1864,  —  the  "  Florida  "  by  a  violation 
of  Brazilian  neutrality,  the  "  Georgia "  after  an  attempt 
to  transfer  her  to  neutral  owners,  and  the  "Alabama" 
after  a  brief  sea-fight  with  the  "Kearsarge,"  off  Cher 
bourg  (June  19).      Confederate  attempts  to  have  iron 
clads  equipped  in  England  and  France  were  unsuccessful. 

289.  In  the  west  (§  281)  Bragg,  now  in  command  of 
the  Confederate  forces,  turned  the  right  of  the  Union 
line  in  southern  Tennessee,  and  began  an  invasion  of 
Kentucky  about  the  time  when  Lee  was  beginning  his 
invasion  of  the  north.     Carrying  off  much  booty,  he  re 
tired  into  Tennessee.    Towards  the  end  of  the  year  Kose- 
crans  moved  forward  from  Nashville  to  attack  him.    The 
armies  met   at   Murfreesboro',  and  fought  a 

drawn  battle  during  the  last  day  of  the  year 
1862  and  the  first  two  days  of  January,  1863.    The  west 
ern  armies  were  now  in  four  parts,  —  that  of  Kosecrans 
near  Murfreesboro',  that  of  Grant  near  Corinth,  that  of 


232  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Schofield  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  that  of  Banks  in 
Louisiana.  The  complete  opening  of  the  Mississippi 
being  the  great  object,  the  burden  of  the  work  fell  to 
Grant,  who  was  nearest  the  river.  Vicksburg  was  the 
objective  point,  and  Grant  at  first  attempted  to  take  it 
from  the  opposite  or  western  bank  of  the  river.  Failing 
here,  he  moved  south  to  a  favorable  point  for  crossing, 
and  used  the  river  fleet  to  transfer  his  army  to  the  eastern 
bank.  He  was  now  on  the  Vicksburg  side  of 
the  river.  J.  E.  Johnston  was  north-east  of 
him  at  Jackson,  with  a  weaker  army ;  the  bulk  of  the 
Confederate  forces  was  at  or  near  Vicksburg,  under  Pem- 
berton.  Johnston  wanted  no  siege  of  Vicksburg;  Pember- 
ton  wanted  no  junction  with  Johnston,  which  might  cost 
him  the  glory  of  defeating  Grant ;  and  Grant  solved  their 
difficulty  for  them.  Moving  north-east  he  struck  John 
ston's  army  near  Jackson,  beat  it,  and  drove  it  out  of  any 
possibility  of  junction.  He  then  turned  westward,  fight 
ing  several  sharp  battles  as  he  went,  and  late  in  May  he 
had  Pemberton  shut  up  in  Vicksburg.  His  lines  were 
maintained  for  six  weeks,  and  then  (July  4,  1863)  the 
finest  Confederate  army  in  the  west  surrendered.  Port 
Hudson  surrendered  to  Banks  five  days  later :  the  Mis- 
Port  Hudson,  sissippi  was  opened  from  end  to  end,  and  the 
opening  of  the  Confederacy  was  cleft  in  twain.  From  this 
Mississippi,  time  communication  between  the  two  parts  of 
the  Confederate  States  became  increasingly  more  difficult, 
and  the  transfer  of  supplies  from  the  rich  country  west  of 
the  Mississippi  was  almost  at  an  end.  There  was  little 
further  fighting  to  the  west  of  the  great  river,  except  an 
intermittent  guerilla  warfare  and  the  defeat  of  Banks's 
expedition  against  north-western  Louisiana  early  in  1864. 
When  the  war  ceased  in  the  east,  the  isolated  western 
half  of  the  Confederacy  fell  with  it. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  233 


290.  While  Grant  was  besieging  Vicksburg,  Eosecraiis 
had  begun  to  move  from  the  eastern  end  of  the  Union 
line  in  Tennessee  against   Bragg  at   Chattanooga.     He 
drove  Bragg  through  the  place,  and  a  dozen  miles  beyond 
it,  into  Georgia.     Here  the  Confederate  army 

IT-      T    s-*n  •    i  11    Chickamauga. 

took  position  behind  Chickamauga  creek,  and 
inflicted  a  complete  defeat  upon  the  pursuing  Union  forces 
(September  19-20,  1863) .  Thomas  covered  the  rear  stub 
bornly,  and  secured  a  safe  retreat  into  Chattanooga,  but 
the  possession  of  the  mountains  around  the  place  enabled 
Bragg  to  cut  off  almost  all  roads  of  further  retreat  and 
establish  a  siege  of  Chattanooga.  Bragg  was  so  con 
fident  of  success  that  he  detached  a  part  of  his  army, 
under  Longstreet,  to  besiege  Knoxville,  in  eastern  Ten 
nessee.  Grant  was  ordered  to  take  command  at  Chatta 
nooga,  and  went  thither,  taking  Sherman  and  others  of 
the  officers  who  had  taken  part  in  his  Vicksburg  campaign. 
He  soon  opened  new  routes  of  communication  to  the  rear, 
supplied  and  reinforced  his  army,  and  began  to  prepare 
for  the  storming  of  the  mountains  before  him.  His  as 
saults  on  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary  Kidge  (No 
vember  23-25)  were  among  the  most  dramatic  Lookout  Moun 
and  successful  of  the  war.  Bragg  was  driven  tain  and  Mission- 
out  of  all  his  positions  and  back  to  Dalton,  ary  Ridge' 
where  Davis  was  compelled  by  the  complaints  of  his 
people  to  remove  him,  and  appoint  J.  E.  Johnston  his 
successor.  Longstreet  broke  up  the  siege  of  Knoxville, 
and  made  good  his  retreat  across  the  mountains  into  Vir 
ginia  to  join  Lee. 

291.  The  army  of  the  Potomac,  under  Hooker,  kept 
its  place  near  Fredericksburg  (§  286)  until  May,  1863. 
Hooker   then  began  a  movement   across   the   E/apidan 
towards  Kichmond  and  was  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Chan- 


234  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

cellorsville  (May  2-3) .    The  victorious  army  suffered  the 

severest  of  losses  in  the  death  of  Jackson,  but  this  did 

not  check  Lee's  preparations  for  a  second  in- 

Chancellorsville.  .  „       ,  ,   .    ,       .  , 

vasion  of  the  north,  which  began  the  next 
month.  As  his  army  moved  northwards,  very  nearly  on 
the  route  which  it  had  followed  the  year  before,  the  army 
of  the  Potomac  held  a  parallel  course  through  Mary 
land  and  into  Pennsylvania.  The  Confederate  forces 
penetrated  farther  than  in  1862 ;  their  advance  came 
almost  to  Harrisburg,  and  threw  the  neighboring  north 
ern  cities  into  great  alarm ;  but  the  pursuing  army, 
now  under  Meade,  met  Lee  at  Gettysburg  (July  1-3) 

and  defeated  him.     The    Confederate  army. 

Gettysburg.  ,,  . 

assaulting  its  enemy  m  very  strong  positions, 
suffered  losses  which  were  almost  irreparable,  and  it  was 
never  again  quite  the  same  army  as  before  Gettysburg. 
Some  northern  cities  were  inclined  to  think  that  Lee's 
former  successes  had  really  been  due  to  Jackson's  genius, 
and  that  he  had  lost  his  power  in  losing  Jackson.  The 
campaign  of  1864  was  to  prove  the  contrary.  The  cus 
tomary  retreat  brought  the  two  armies  back  to  very 
nearly  the  same  positions  which  they  had  occupied  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  Eappahannock  flowing 
between  them.  Here  they  remained  until  the  following 
spring. 

292.  The  turning  point  of  the  war  was  evidently  in  the 
early  days  of  July,  1863,  when  the  victories  of  Vicks- 
The  current  of  burg  and  Gettysburg  came  together.  The 
success  changes.  national  Government  had  at  the  beginning  cut 
the  Confederate  States  down  to  a  much  smaller  area  than 
might  well  have  been  expected ;  its  armies  had  pushed 
the  besieging  lines  far  into  the  hostile  territory,  and 
had  held  the  ground  which  they  had  gained  ;  and  the  war 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  235 


itself  had  developed  a  class  of  generals  who  cared  less  for 
the  conquest  of  territory  than  for  attacking  and  destroy 
ing  the  opposing  armies.  The  great  drafts  on  the  future 
which  the  credit  of  the  Federal  Government  enabled  the 
north  to  make  gave  it  also  a  startling  appearance  of 
prosperity ;  so  far  from  feeling  the  war,  it  was  driving 
production  of  every  kind  to  a  higher  pitch  than  ever  be 
fore.  The  cities  began  to  show  greater  evidences  of 
wealth,  and  new  rich  men  appeared,  many  of  them  being 
the  "  shoddy  aristocracy,"  who  had  acquired  wealth  by 
mis-serving  the  Government,  but  more  being  able  men 
who  had  grasped  the  sudden  opportunities  offered  by  the 
changes  of  affairs. 

293.  The  war  had  not  merely  developed  improved 
weapons  and  munitions  of  war ;  it  had  also  spurred  the 
people  on  to  a  more  careful  attention  to  the  welfare  of 
the  soldiers,  the  fighting  men  drawn  from  their  own 
number.  The  Sanitary  Commission,  the  Christian  Com 
mission,  and  other  voluntary  associations  for  the  physical 
and  moral  care  of  soldiers  received  and  disbursed  very 
large  sums.  The  national  Government  was  paying  an 
average  amount  of  $2,000,000  per  day  for  the  prosecu 
tion  of  the  war,  and,  in  spite  of  the  severest  taxation,  the 
debt  grew  to  $500,000,000  in  June,  1862,  to  twice  that 
amount  a  year  later,  to  $1,700,000,000  in  June,  1864,  and 
reached  its  maximum  August  31,  1865,  — $2,845,907,626. 
But  this  lavish  expenditure  was  directed  with  energy  and 
judgment.  The  blockading  fleets  were  kept  in  perfect 
order  and  with  every  condition  of  success.  The  railroad 
and  telegraph  were  brought  into  systematic  use  for  the 
first  time  in  modern  warfare.  Late  in  1863  Stanton,  the 
secretary  of  war,  moved  two  corps  of  23,000  men  from 
Washington  to  Chattanooga,  1200  miles,  in  seven  days. 


236  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

A  year  later  he  moved  another  corps,  15,000  strong,  from 
Tennessee  to  Washington  in  eleven  days,  and  within  a 
month  had  collected  vessels  and  transferred  it  to  North 
Carolina.  Towards  the  end  of  the  war,  when  the  capacity 
of  the  railroad  for  war  purposes  had  been  fully  learned, 
these  sudden  transfers  of  troops  by  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  almost  neutralized  the  Confederate  advantage  of 
interior  lines. 

294.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Federal  armies  now  held 
almost  all  the  great  southern  through  lines  of  railroad, 
except  the  <3!-eorgia  lines  and  those  which  supplied  Lee 
from  the  south  (§  296).     The  want  of  the  southern  peo 
ple  was  merely  growing  in  degree,  not   in  kind.     The 

conscription,  sweeping  from  the  first,  had  be- 

Conscription.  .  n        ,  ..      „    , 

come  omnivorous  ;  towards  the  end  of  the  war 
every  man  between  seventeen  and  fifty-five  was  legally 
liable  to  service,  and  in  practice  the  only  limit  was 
physical  incapacity.  In  1863  the  Federal  Government 
also  was  driven  to  conscription.  The  first  attempts  to 
carry  it  out  resulted  in  forcible  resistance  in  several 
places,  the  worst  being  the  "  draft  riots  "  in  New  York 
(July),  when  the  city  was  in  the  hands  of  the  mob  for 
several  days.  All  the  resistance  was  put  down  ;  but  ex 
emptions  and  substitute  purchases  were  so  freely  per 
mitted  that  the  draft  in  the  north  had  little  effect  except 
as  a  stimulus  to  the  States  in  filling  their  quotas  of  vol 
unteers  by  voting  bounties. 

295.  Early  in  1864  Grant  (§  290)  was  made  lieutenant- 
general,  with  the  command  of  all  the  armies.     He  went 
Grant  and  sher-  to  Washington  to  meet  Lee,  leaving  Sherman 

man-  to  face  Johnston  at  Dalton.  Events  had  thus 
brought  the  two  ablest  of  the  Confederate  generals  oppo 
site  the  two  men  who  were  the  best  product  of  the  war  on 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  23< 


the  northern  side.  It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  Lee, 
with  his  army  of  northern  Virginia,  could  resist  the 
methods  by  which  Grant  and  Sherman  had  won  almost 
all  the  great  table-land  which  occupies  the  heart  of  the 
country  east  of  the  Mississippi.  And  it  remained  to  be 
seen,  also,  whether  the  reputation  which  Grant  had  won 
at  a  distance  from  the  political  atmosphere  of  Washing 
ton  would  not  wither  in  his  new  position.  It  was  neces 
sary  for  him  to  take  the  overland  route  to  Eichmond,  or 
meet  McClellan's  fate.  He  did  not  hesitate.  Early  in 
May,  1864,  with  about  twice  as  many  men  (125,000)  as 
Lee,  he  entered  the  "  Wilderness  "  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Eapidan.  At  the  same  time  he  sent  30,000  men,  un 
der  Butler,  up  the  James  river;  but  this  part  of  his 
plan  proved  of  comparatively  little  service. 

296.   Two  weeks'  hard  fighting  in  the  Wilderness  and 
at  Spotsylvania  Court  House  (May  5-18),  and  four  days 
more  at  North  Anna  (May  23-27),  with  flank  „ wilderness" 
movements  as  a  means  of  forcing  Lee  out  of     camPaig"- 
positions  too  strong  to  be  taken  from  the  front,  brought 
the  army  of  the  Potomac  to  Cold  Harbor,  in  the  imme 
diate  defences  of  Eichmond.     One  assault,  bloodily  re 
pulsed,  showed  that  there  was  no  thoroughfare  in  this 
direction.     Lee  had  so  diligently  prepared  that  his  posi 
tion  became  stronger  as  he  was  driven  into  greater  con 
centration  ;  and  Grant  began  to  move  along  the  eastern 
face  of  the  line  of  Confederate  fortifications,  striking  at 
them  as  he  passed  them,  but  finding  no  weak  spot.     As 
he  crossed  the  James  river  and  reached  Petersburg,  he 
came  at  last  into  dangerous  proximity  to  the 
railroads  which  brought  Lee's  supplies  from 
the    south  —  the    Weldon    Eailroad,    running    directly 
south,  the  Danville   Eailroad,  running  south-west,  and 


238  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

the  Southside  Railroad,  running  west.  At  this  end  of  his 
line,  therefore,  Lee  kept  the  best  part  of  his  troops,  and 
resisted  with  increasing  stubbornness  Grant's  efforts  to 
carry  his  lines  farther  to  the  south-west  or  to  reach  the 
railroads.  Resorting  to  the  plan  which  had  been  so 
effective  with  McClellan,  he  sent  Early  on  a  raid  up  the 
Shenandoah  valley  to  threaten  Washington  (July).  But 
Early  was  not  Jackson,  and  he  returned  with  no  more 
success  than  the  frightening  of  the  authorities  at  Wash 
ington.  Grant  put  Sheridan  in  command  in  the  valley, 
and  he  beat  Early  at  Cedar  Creek  (October),  scattering 
his  army  for  the  remainder  of  the  war.  In  August 
Grant  succeeded  in  seizing  a  few  miles  of  the  Weldon 
Railroad ;  but  Lee  brought  his  supplies  in  wagons  round 
that  portion  held  by  Grant.  Late  in  the  year  this  was 
stopped  by  the  destruction  of  some  twenty  miles  of  the 
road.  Here  Grant  was  himself  stopped  for  the  time. 
Lee  had  so  taken  advantage  of  every  defensive  position 
that  Grant  could  not  reach  the  nearer  of  the  other  two 
railroads  without  an  advance  of  fifteen  miles,  or  the 
further  one  without  a  circuit  of  about  forty  miles.  The 
two  armies  remained  locked  until  the  following  spring. 
Grant,  however,  was  operating  still  more  successfully  else 
where  through  Sherman. 

297.  Sherman  (§  295)  had  moved  on  the  same  day  as 
Grant   (May  5).     Johnston's  retreat  was  skilfully  con- 
johnston's  re-  ducted ;  every  position  was  held  to  the  last 
treat.        moment ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of 
July  that  Sherman  had  forced  him  back  to  his  strongest 
lines  of  defence  —  those  around  Atlanta.     The  Confed 
erate  forces  could  not  retreat  much  beyond  Atlanta,  for 
the    great   central   table-land   here   begins  to   fall   into 
the  plains  which  stretch  to  the  Atlantic.     Sherman  had 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  239 


now  been  brought  so  far  from  his  base  that  the  two 
armies  were  much  more  nearly  on  an  equality  than  in 
May ;  and  Johnston  was  preparing  for  the  decisive  battle 
when  Davis  made  Sherman's  way  clear.  A  feature  in 
Davis's  conduct  of  the  war  had  been  his  extraordinary 
tendency  to  favoritism.  He  had  been  forced  to  take 
Johnston  as  commander  in  Georgia;  and  the  wide 
spread  alarm  caused  by  Johnston's  inexplicable  per 
sistence  in  retreating  gave  him  the  excuse  he  desired. 
He  removed  Johnston  (July  17),  naming  Hood,  a 
"fighting  general,"  as  his  successor.  Before  the  end 
of  the  month  Hood  had  made  three  furious  attacks  on 
Sherman  and  been  beaten  in  all  of  them.  Moving 
around  Atlanta,  as  Grant  was  doing  around 
Petersburg,  Sherman  cut  the  supplying  rail 
roads,  and  at  last  was  able  to  telegraph  to  Washington 
(September  2),  "Atlanta  is  ours,  and  fairly  won." 

298.  Hood,  by  the  direct  command  of  Davis,  then 
adopted  a  course  which  led  to  the  downfall  of  the  Con 
federacy  in  the  following  spring.  Moving 

vli.  ov  j     IT.  Nashville. 

from  between  Sherman  and  the  open  coun 
try,  he  set  out  for  Tennessee,  expecting  to  draw  Sher 
man  after  him.  Sherman  sent  Thomas  to  Nashville, 
called  out  the  resources  of  the  north-west  to  support 
him,  and  left  Hood  to  his  march  and  his  fate.  Hood 
reached  Nashville ;  but  in  the  middle  of  December 
Thomas  burst  out  upon  him,  routed  his  army,  and  pur 
sued  it  so  vigorously  that  it  never  again  reunited.  One 
of  the  two  great  armies  of  the  Confederacy  had  dis 
appeared  ;  and  Sherman,  with  one  of  the  finest  armies  of 
the  war,  an  army  of  60,000  picked  veteran  troops,  stood 
on  the  edge  of  the  Georgia  mountains,  without  an  organ 
ized  force  between  him  and  the  back  of  Lee's  army  in 
Virginia. 


240  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

299.  In   the   meantime   the   presidential    election   of 
1864  had  taken  place,  resulting  in  the  re-election  of  Lin 
coln,  with  Andrew  Johnson  as  Yice-President. 

Election  of  1864.    _.        _  ..  .       .,    .       ,  _  , . 

The  Democratic  convention  had  declared  that, 
after  four  years  of  failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  war, 
during  which  the  Constitution  had  been  violated  in  all 
its  parts  under  the  plea  of  military  necessity,  a  cessa 
tion  of  hostilities  ought  to  be  obtained,  and  had  nomi 
nated  McClellan  and  Pendleton.  Farragut's  victory  in 
Mobile  Bay  (August  5),  by  which  he  sealed  up  the  last 
port,  except  Wilmington,  of  the  blockade-runners,  and 
the  evidently  staggering  condition  of  the  Confederate 
resistance  in  the  east  and  the  west,  were  the  sharpest 
commentaries  on  the  Democratic  platform ;  and  its  can- 
Admission  of  didates  carried  only  three  of  the  twenty- 
Nevada,  fiyg  states  which  took  part  in  the  election. 
The  thirty-sixth  State  —  Nevada  —  had  been  admitted  in 
1864. 

300.  Sherman  began    (November   16,  1864)    the  exe 
cution  of  his  own  plan,  —  to  "  send  back  his  wounded, 
Sherman's  march  m^-Q  a  wreck  of  the  railroad,  and,  with  his 
through  Georgia  effective  army,  move  through  Georgia,  smash- 

andtheCarolinas.  .          ,,   .  ,,  M      TI-     i      3  i  T 

mg  things  to  the  sea."  He  had  been  drawing 
supplies  from  a  point  500  miles  distant,  over  a  single  rail 
road.  He  now  destroyed  the  railroad  and  the  telegraph, 
cut  off  his  communication  with  the  north,  and  moved 
towards  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  sea  was  reached  on 
December  12,  and  Savannah  was  taken  on  the  twentieth. 
He  had  threatened  so  many  points,  and  kept  the  enemy 
in  so  much  doubt  as  to  his  objects,  that  there  had  hardly 
been  men  enough  in  his  front  at  any  one  time  to  make  a 
skirmish  line.  On  January  15,  1865,  the  army  moved 
north  from  Savannah,  through  Columbia,  to  Fayetteville, 


TEE  CIVIL    WAR.  241 


KG.  The  march,  had  forced  the  evacuation  of  Charleston 
and  the  other  coast  cities,  and  their  garrisons  had  been  put 
by  Davis  under  command  of  Johnston  as  a  last  hope. 
Wilmington,  which  had  been  captured  by  a  land  and  sea 
force  on  the  day  when  Sherman  left  Savannah,  was  an 
opening  for  communication  with  Washington;  and  it 
would  have  been  possible  for  Sherman,  with  Wilmington 
as  a  base,  to  crush  Johnston  at  once.  All  that  he  cared 
to  do  was  to  hold  Johnston  where  he  was  while  Grant 
should  begin  his  final  attack  on  Lee. 

301.  During  the  opening  days  of  March,  1865,  Sheridan, 
with  a  body  of  cavalry,  moved  from  the  Shenandoah 
valley  along  the  James  river  to  a  junction  with  Grant 
(§  296) .  On  the  way  he  had  ruined  the  canal  and  railroad 
communication  directly  west  from  Richmond,  and  had 
reduced  Lee  to  dependence  on  the  two  railroads  running 
south-west.  Grant  resumed  his  attempts  to  work  his 
lines  further  round  to  the  south  of  Petersburg ;  and,  with 
each  successful  advance,  Lee  was  compelled  to  lengthen 
his  thin  line  of  men.  Sheridan  was  put  in  command  on 
the  extreme  left ;  he  pushed  forward  to  Five 
Forks,  destroyed  the  Southside  Railroad 
(April  1),  and  held  his  ground.  Giving  Lee  time  to 
lengthen  his  line  to  meet  this  new  danger,  Grant  gave 
the  signal  for  a  general  advance  the  next  day.  It  was 
successful  everywhere ;  Petersburg  was  taken,  and  Rich 
mond  the  next  day ;  Davis  and  the  other  political  leaders 
fled  to  North  Carolina ;  and  Lee  retreated  westward,  hop 
ing  to  join  Johnston.  The  pursuit  was  too 

i  -11  T          T     f  *        -i    /-K\  in     ii       Surrender  of  Lee. 

hot,  and  he  surrendered  (April  9).     All  the 
terms  of  surrender  named  by  Grant  were  generous :  no 
private  property  was  to  be  surrendered ;  the  men  were 
even  to  retain  their  horses,  "because  they  would  need 


242  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

them  for  the  spring  ploughing  and  farm-work  "  ;  and  both 
officers  and  men  were  to  be  dismissed  on  parole,  not  to  be 
disturbed  by  the  United  States  Government  so  long  as 
they  preserved  their  parole  and  did  not  violate  the  laws. 
It  should  be  stated,  also,  to  Grant's  honor  that,  when  the 
politicians  afterwards  undertook  to  repudiate  some  of 
the  terms  of  surrender,  he  personally  intervened  and 
used  the  power  of  his  own  name  to  force  an  exact  fulfil- 
Surrenderof  inent.  Johnston  surrendered  on  much  the 
Johnston.  same  terms  (April  26),  after  an  unsuccessful 
effort  at  a  broader  settlement.  All  organized  resistance 
had  now  ceased ;  Union  cavalry  were  ranging  the  south, 
picking  up  Government  property  or  arresting  leaders ;  but 
it  was  not  until  May  that  the  last  detached  parties  of 
Confederates,  particularly  beyond  the  Mississippi,  gave 
up  the  contest. 

302.  Just    after   Lee's    surrender    President    Lincoln 
died  by  assassination  (April  15),  the  theatrical  crime  of 

a   half-crazed   enthusiast.      Even   this  event 

Death  of  Lincoln.  _.1  .  ,       ,          A  .  , 

did  not  impel  the  American  people  to  any 
vindictive  use  of  their  success  for  the  punishment  of 
individuals.  In  the  heat  of  the  war,  in  1862,  Congress 
had  so  changed  the  criminal  law  that  the  punishment  of 
treason  and  rebellion  should  no  longer  be  death  alone, 
but  death  or  fine  and  imprisonment.  Even  this  modified 
punishment  was  not  inflicted.  There  was  no  hanging 
for  treason ;  some  of  the  leaders  were  imprisoned  for  a 
time,  but  were  never  brought  to  trial.  The  leader  and 
President  of  the  Confederate  States  is  living  (1889) 
quietly  at  his  home  in  Mississippi ;  and  the  Vice-Presi 
dent,  before  his  death,  had  returned  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  as  an  efficient  and  respected  member. 

303.  The  armies  of  the  Confederacy  are  supposed  to 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  243 


have  been  at  their  strongest  (700,000)  at  the  beginning 
of  1863 ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  con-  The  Opp0sing 
tained  200,000  men  in  March,  1865.  The  dis-  armies- 
satisfaction  of  the  southern  people  at  the  manner  in 
which  Davis  had  managed  the  war  seems  to  have  been 
profound ;  and  it  was  only  converted  into  hero-worship 
by  the  ill-advised  action  of  the  Federal  Government  in 
arresting  and  imprisoning  him.  Desertion  had  become 
so  common  in  1864,  and  the  attempts  of  the  Confederate 
Government  to  force  the  people  into  the  ranks  had  be 
come  so  arbitrary,  that  the  bottom  of  the  Confederacy, 
the  democratic  elements  which  had  given  it  all  the  suc 
cess  it  had  ever  obtained,  had  dropped  out  of  it  before 
Sherman  moved  northward  from  Savannah;  in  some 
parts  the  people  had  really  taken  up  arms  against  the 
conscripting  officers.  On  the  contrary,  the  numbers  of 
the  Federal  armies  increased  steadily  until  March,  1865, 
when  there  were  a  few  hundreds  over  a  million.  As 
soon  as  organized  resistance  ceased,  the  disbanding  of 
the  men  began;  they  were  sent  home  at  the  rate  of 
about  300,000  a  month,  about  50,000  being  retained  in 
service  as  a  standing  army.  The  debt  reached 

.,  .  .  i     o-i     -tnnr  .  •  Cost  of  the  war, 

its  maximum  August  31,  1865,  amounting  to 
$2,845,907,626.56.  Some  $800,000,000  of  revenue  had 
also  been  spent  mainly  on  the  war ;  States,  cities,  coun 
ties,  and  towns  had  spent  their  own  taxation  and  accu 
mulated  their  own  debts  for  war  purposes ;  the  payments 
for  pensions  will  probably  amount  to  $1,500,000,000  in 
the  end ;  the  expenses  of  the  Confederacy  can  never  be 
known;  the  property  destroyed  by  the  Federal  armies 
and  by  Confederate  armies  can  hardly  be  estimated; 
and  the  money  value  ($2,000,000,000)  of  the  slaves 
in  the  south  was  wiped  out  by  the  war.  Altogether 


244  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

while  the  cost  of  the  war  cannot  be  exactly  calculated, 
$8,000,000,000  is  a  moderate  estimate. 

304.  In  return  for  such  an  expenditure,  and  the  death 
of  probably  300,000  men  on  each  side,  the  abiding  gain 
Results  of  the  w^s  incalculable.  The  rich  section,  which 
war-  had  been  kept  back  in  the  general  develop 
ment  by  a  single  institution,  and  had  been  a  clog  on  the 
advance  of  the  whole  country,  had  been  dragged  up  to  a 
level  with  the  rest  of  the  country.  Free  labor  was  soon 
to  show  itself  far  superior  to  slave  labor  in  the  south ; 
and  the  south  was  to  reap  the  largest  material  gain  from 
the  destruction  of  the  Civil  War  (§  314).  The  per 
sistent  policy  of  paying  the  debt  immediately  resulted 
in  the  higher  taxation  falling  on  the  richer  north  and 
west;  and  the  new  wealth  of  the  south  will  forever 
escape  the  severe  taxation  which  the  other  sections  have 
been  compelled  to  feel.  As  a  result  of  the  struggle  the 
moral  stigma  of  slavery  was  removed.  The  power  of 
the  nation,  never  before  asserted  openly,  had  made  a 
place  for  itself;  and  yet  the  continuing  power  of  the 
States  saved  the  national  power  from  a  development  into 
centralized  tyranny.  And  the  new  power  of  the  nation, 
guaranteeing  the  restriction  of  government  to  a  single 
nation  in  central  North  America,  gave  security  against 
any  introduction  of  international  relations,  international 
armament,  international  wars,  and  continual  war  tax 
ation  into  the  territory  occupied  by  the  United  States. 
An  approach  for  four  years  to  the  international  policy 
of  Europe  had  given  security  against  its  future  necessity. 
Finally,  democracy  in  America  had  certainly  shown  its 
ability  to  maintain  the  unity  of  its  empire. 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED   NATION.  245 


XI. 

THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION. 

1865-87. 

305.   THE  Federal  Government  had  begun  the  war  with 
an  honest  expression  of  its  determination  not  to  interfere 
with  slavery ;  the   progress   of  the  war  had      The  ,3th 
forced  it  into  passing   the  13th   amendment    amendment. 
in  1865,  abolishing  slavery   in   the   United  States  for 
ever.     In  much  the  same  way  circumstances  were  driv 
ing  it  into  interference  with  what  had  always  been  re 
garded  as  the  rights  of  the  States.     In  the  latter  case 
the  process  was  certain  to  find  an  obstacle  in  Lincoln's 
successor,  Johnson.    He  had  been  elected,  like  _ 

'  Pres.  Johnson 

Tyler,  to  the  comparatively  unimportant  office  and  the  Repub- 
of  Vice-President  in  order  to  gain  the  votes 
of  War  Democrats ;  and  now  the  dominant  party  found 
itself  with  a  President  opposed  to  its  fundamental  views 
of  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government.  The  case  was 
worse  for  Johnson,  since  the  war  had  built  up  a  new 
party.  Until  1861  the  Republican  party  had  been  a  mix 
ture  of  a  strong  Whig  element  and  a  weak  Democratic 
element ;  now  it  was  a  real  party,  and  demanded  com 
plete  loyalty  from  its  leaders,  not  skilful  compromises 
between  its  two  elements.  Just  as  in  the  cases  of  Sew- 
ard,  Sumner,  Trumbull,  and  very  many  of  its  original 
leaders,  the  party  was  nx)w  ready  to  repudiate  its  leaders 
if  they  did  not  come  up  to  its  ideas. 


constructon, 


246  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

306.  The  universal   idea  in   1861  had  been   that  the 
States  were  to  be  forced  to  return  with  all  their  rights  un- 

re-  impaired.  This  original  notion  was  seriously 
limited  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
of  1862-63  ;  as  soon  as  the  President  opened  a  door,  by 
demanding  a  recognition  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  as 
a  condition  precedent  to  the  return  of  a  State,  the  way 
was  just  as  open  for  the  imposition  of  whatever  con 
ditions  Congress  as  well  should  think  essential  to  an 
abiding  peace.  But  Congress  was  not  called  to  face  the 
difficulty  for  some  time.  President  Lincoln  went  on  to 
reorganize  civil  government  in  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Ar 
kansas,  and  Louisiana,  by  giving  amnesty  to  such  voters 
as  would  swear  to  support  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  and  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  recognizing  the 
State  officers  elected  by  such  voters.  When  Johnson 
succeeded  to  the  presidency  in  April,  1865,  he  had  a  clear 
field  before  him,  for  Congress  was  not  to  meet  until  De 
cember.  Before  that  time  he  had  reorganized  the  gov 
ernments  of  the  seceding  States  ;  they  had  passed  the 
13th  amendment  (§  125)  ;  and  they  were  ready  to  apply 
for  readmission  to  Congress.  Tennessee  was  readmitted 
in  1866  by  Congress  ;  but  the  other  seceding  States  were 
refused  recognition  for  a  time. 

307.  It  was  not  possible  that  slave-owners  should  pass 
at  one  step  from  the  position  of  absolute  masters  to  that 
of  political  equality  with  their  late  slaves.     Their  State 
legislation   assumed  at  once  a  very  paternal  character. 
Every  means  was  taken,  in  the  passage  of  contract  and 
vagrant  laws,  and  enactments  of  that  nature,  to  force  the 
freedmen  to  work;   and   the  legislation   seemed  to  the 
northern  people   a  re-establishment  of  slavery  under  a 
new  name.     Johnson  had  a  very  unhappy  disposition  for 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  247 

such,  a  state  of  affairs  ;  he  had  strong  convictions,  great 
stubbornness,  and  a  hasty,  almost  reckless,  Quarre|  between 
habit  of  speech.  As  soon  as  it  became  clear  congress  and  the 
that  Congress  did  not  intend  to  readmit  the 
Southern  States  at  once  he  began  (February,  1866)  to 
denounce  Congress  in  public  speeches  as  "no  Congress" 
so  long  as  it  consisted  of  representatives  from  but  part 
of  the  States.  The  quarrel  grew  rapidly  more  bitter; 
the  Congressional  elections  of  1866  made  it  certain  that 
the  Republicans  would  have  a  two-thirds  majority  in 
both  houses  through  the  rest  of  Johnson's  term  of  office ; 
and  the  majority  passed  over  the  veto  (§  113)  every  bill 
which  Johnson  vetoed.  Thus  were  passed  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau  Bill  (1866)  for  the  protection  of  the  Admission  of 
emancipated  negroes,  the  Act  for  the  admis-  Nebraska. 
sion  of  Nebraska,  with  equal  suffrage  for  blacks  and 
whites  (1867),  the  Tenure  of  Office  Bill  making  the 
assent  of  the  senate  necessary  to  removals,  which  had 
always  been  regarded  as  within  the  absolute  power  of 
the  President  (1867),  and  the  Keconstruction  Acts  (1867). 
The  increasing  bitterness  of  the  quarrel  be-  impeachment  of 
tween  the  President  and  the  majority  in  Con-  the  President- 
gress  led  to  the  impeachment  of  the  President  in  1868 
for  removing  Stanton,  the  secretary  of  war,  without  the 
assent  of  the  senate  ;  but  on  trial  by  the  senate  a  two- 
thirds  majority  for  conviction  could  not  be  obtained,  and 
Johnson  served  out  his  term. 

308.  The  Keconstruction  Acts  divided  the  seceding 
States  into  military  districts,  each  under  command  of  a 
general  officer,  who  was  to  leave  to  the  State  Govern 
ments  then  in  existence  such  powers  as  he  should  not 
consider  to  be  used  to  deprive  the  negroes  of  their  rights. 
The  State  Governments  of  the  seceding  States  were  to 


248  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

be  considered  provisional  only,  until  conventions,  elected 
without  the  exclusion  of  the  negroes,  but  with  the  exclu 
sion  of  the  leading  Confederates,  should  form  new  or 
"  reconstructed "  State  Governments,  on  a  basis  of  man 
hood  suffrage,  and  their  legislatures  should  ratify  the 
The  i4th  14th  amendment  to  the  Constitution  (§  125). 

amendment,  "j^g  amendment,  passed  by  Congress  in  1866, 
was  in  five  sections,  but  had  three  main  divisions. 
(1)  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States 
were  declared  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  their 
States,  and  the  States  were  forbidden  to  abridge  the 
"  privileges  or  immunities  "  of  such  citizens.  This  was 
to  override  the  Dred  Scott  decision  (§  249).  (2)  The 
representation  of  the  States  in  Congress  was  to  be  re 
duced  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  persons  whom  they 
should  exclude  from  the  elective  franchise.  This  was  to 
induce  the  States  to  adopt  negro  suffrage.  On  the  other 
hand,  specified  classes  of  Confederate  office-holders  were 
excluded  from  office  until  Congress  should  remove  their 
disabilities.  (3)  The  war  debts  of  the  Confederacy  and 
the  seceding  States  were  declared  void  forever,  and  the 
war  debt  of  the  United  States  was  guaranteed.  Con 
gress  was  given  power  to  enforce  all  these  provisions  by 
"  appropriate  legislation." 

309.  The  presidential  election  of  1868  sealed  the  pro 
cess  of  reconstruction.  The  Democrats  opposed  it,  and 
nominated  Seymour  and  Blair ;  the  Republi- 
'  cans  endorsed  it,  and  nominated  Grant  and 
Colfax.  Virginia,  Mississippi,  and  Texas  were  the  only 
States  of  the  late  Confederacy  which  were  excluded  from 
this  election ;  all  the  rest  had  been  reconstructed,  and  re 
admitted  by  Congress  in  June,  1868  ;  and  the  Republican 
candidates  carried  twenty-six  of  the  thirty-four  voting 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  249 

States,  and  were  elected.  The  legislatures  of  the  recon 
structed  States,  representing  mainly  the  negroes  freed  by 
the  war,  were  devoted  supporters  of  the  new  order  of 
things ;  and  their  ratifications  secured  the  necessary  three- 
fourths  of  the  States  to  make  the  14th  amendment  a  part 
of  the  Constitution  (1868).  Congress  went  on  to  propose  a 
loth  amendment,  forbidding  the  United  States,  The  |5th 
or  any  State,  to  limit  or  take  away  the  right  amendment- 
of  suffrage  by  reason  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition 
of  servitude.  This  was  ratified  by  the  necessary  number 
of  States  and  became  a  part  of  the  Constitution  (1870).. 
Ratification  of  it  was  imposed  as  an  additional  condition 
on  Virginia,  Mississippi,  and  Texas,  which  had  rejected  the 
original  terms  of  readmission.  They  accepted  it,  and  were 
readmitted  (1870) .  It  was  not  until  January  30, 1871,  that 
all  the  States  were  once  more  represented  in  Congress. 

310.    The  foreign  affairs  of  the  United  States  during 
this  period  took  on  a  new  appearance.      The  country's 
promptness  in  disarming  at  the  end  of  the  war  put  it 
under  no  disadvantage  in  dealing  with  other  nations  ; 
power  and  pacific  intentions  were  united  in  the  act.    The 
successful  completion  of  the  Atlantic  cable  (1866)  gave 
a  celerity  and  directness  to  diplomacy  which  was  well 
suited  to  American   methods.      The   tone  of  American 
complaint  at  the  continued  presence  of  French  soldiers  in 
Mexico  grew  more  emphatic  as  the  success  of 
the  war  became  assured ;  and,  at  the  end  of 
the  war,  significant  movements  of  troops  to  the  Mexican 
frontier  led  the  French  emperor  to  withdraw  his  support 
of  Maximilian.     Alaska  was  purchased  from  Alaska.  Treaty 
Eussia  in  1867.     The  treaty  of  Washington  °f  Washington. 
(1871)  provided  for  the  settlement  by  arbitration  of  the 
"Alabama"   disputes,    of  the   north-western  boundary, 


250  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  of  the  claims  of  Canada  for  damages  for  use  of 
the  shore  by  American  fishermen.  The  capture  by 

a   Spanish    man-of-war   of   the    "Virginius," 

case!"'18  a  vessel  claiming  American  nationality,  and 

The  Chinese    ^ne  execution  of  a  part  of  her  crew  (1873), 

threatened  to  interrupt  friendly  relations  with 
Spain;  but  the  rupture  was  averted  by  proof  that  the 
vessel's  papers  were  false.  Chinese  immigration  had 
grown  largely  on  the  Pacific  coast.  There  were  riotous 
attacks  on  the  Chinese  by  worthless  white  men;  and 
many  others  did  not  feel  that  they  were  a  desirable 
political  addition  to  the  population  of  the  United  States. 
A  treaty  with  China  was  obtained  (1880),  by  which  the 
limitation  of  Chinese  immigration  was  allowed.1  So,  also, 

the  raising  of  money  in  the  United  States  to 

assist  the  destruction  of  private  and  public 
buildings  in  England  by  some  of  the  more  desperate  of 
the  Irish  people  (1885)  gave  England  reason  for  discon 
tent.  But  the  American  Government  had  no  power  in 
the  premises.  The  matter  was  under  the  exclusive  juris 
diction  of  the  State  Governments ;  and,  as  soon  as  these 
began  to  apply  the  common  law  to  the  case,  the  "  dyna 
mite  subscriptions"  disappeared.  Further  difficulties 
made  their  appearance  as  to  the  Canadian  fisheries  (1886- 
The  Canadian  87).  When  American  fishing-vessels  bought 
fisheries.  jce  or  ^^  jn  Canadian  ports,  the  Canadian 
Government  seized  and  condemned  them,  on  the  ground 
that  such  purchases  were  acts  "preparatory  to  fishing 
in  Canadian  waters."  Retaliatory  measures  were  sug- 

1  After  rigorous  legislation  in  1882  and  1884  by  Congress  under  the 
provisions  of  this  treaty,  the  expected  ratification  by  China  of  a  new 
treaty  that  had  been  long  negotiating  fell  through  in  1888,  and  Congress 
passed  a  law  absolutely  prohibiting  the  immigration  of  Chinese  laborers. 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  251 

gested,  but  no  full  retaliatory  system  has  been  adopted, 
nor  has  the  dispute  yet  been  settled. 

311.  The  prosperity  of  the  United  States  knew  no 
cessation.  It  had  been  found  that  gold  was  not  confined 
to  California.  In  1858  it  had  been  discovered 

Gold. 

in  Colorado,  at  Pike's  Peak.     It  has  since  been 
found  in  most  of  the  Pacific  States  and  Terri 
tories.      Silver,  a  metal  hardly  known  hitherto  in  the 
United  States,  was  discovered  in  Nevada  (1858)  ;   and 
this  metal  also  has  been  found  to  be  widely 
scattered  over  the  Pacific  coast.     Petroleum 
was   found  in  north-western   Pennsylvania  (1859),  and 
the  enormous  drain  of  this  oil  from  the  earth  still  con 
tinues  without  apparently  affecting  the  reser 
voir.     The  coal-fields  of  the  country  began  to 
be  understood  clearly.     Taylor,  in  1848,  thought  that  the 
coal-area  of  the  United  States  amounted  to  133,000  square 
miles ;  it  was  estimated  in  1883  at  over  200,000 

.  Natural  gas. 

square   miles.      .Natural  gas  has  since  come 

.  ,    ,  ,  ,          .  ,,  Manufactures. 

into  use,  and  has  made  production  of  many 
kinds  cleaner,  more  effective,  and  cheaper.  Manufactures 
and  every  variety  of  production  have  increased  with 
cumulative  rapidity.  In  1860  the  largest  flouring-mill 
in  the  United  States  was  in  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  the  next  two 
in  Richmond,  Va.,  and  the  fourth  in  New  York  city; 
and  the  capacity  of  the  largest  was  only  300,000  barrels 
a  year.  In  1887  the  flour  production  of  Minneapolis, 
almost  unknown  in  1860,  is  100,000  barrels  a  week  or 
5,000,000  barrels  a  year.  The  absolute  free  trade  which 
prevails  between  the  States  has  resulted  m  a  constant 
shifting  of  centres  of  production,  a  natural  arrival  at  the 
best  conditions  of  production,  and  an  increasing  develop 
ment.  Mulhall,  perhaps  safer  as  a  foreign  authority, 


252  THE   UNITED   STATES, 

gives  the  total  manufactures  of  the  United  States  as 
£682,000,000  in  1870  and  £888,000,000  in  1880,  Great 
Britain  coming  next  with  £642, 000,000  in  1870  and 
£758,000,000  in  1880.  He  estimates  the  accumulated 
wealth  of  Great  Britain  at  £8,310,000,000  in 
1870  and  £8,960,000,000  in  1880,  an  increase 
of  £650,000,000;  and  that  of  the  United  States  at  £6,320,- 
000,000  in  1870  and  £7,880,000,000  in  1880,  an  increase 
of  £1,560,000,000.  If  he  had  followed  the  American 
census  returns  his  value  for  1880  would  have  been  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  larger.  In  1870  the  United  States  stood 
third  in  wealth ;  in  1880  they  had  passed  France  in  the 
race,  and  stood  at  least  second.  The  country  whose  pop 
ulation  has  been  developed  within  280  years  does  already 
one-third  of  the  world's  mining,  one-fourth  of  its  manu 
facturing,  and  one-fifth  of  its  agriculture ;  and  at  least  one- 
sixth  of  the  world's  wealth  is  already  concentrated  in  the 
strip  of  territory  in  central  North  America  which  is  the 
home  of  the  United  States. 

312.  Of  the  290,000  miles  of  railroad  in  the  world, 
probably  135,000  are  in  the  United  States.  Of  the 
600,000  miles  of  telegraph  lines,  more  than  a 
fourth  are  in  the  United  States ;  and  the 
American  telephone  lines  are  probably  still  longer  in  the 
aggregate.  The  new  development  of  the  American  rail 
ways  began  in  1869,  when  Yanderbilt  consolidated  the 
Hudson  Eiver  and  New  York  Central  Eailroads  and 
formed  a  trunk  line  to  the  west.  It  was  undoubtedly 
hastened  by  the  completion  of  the  Central  Pacific  line  in 
that  year,  and  it  has  resulted  in  a  universal  tendency  to 
consolidation  of  railways  and  the  evolution  of  "  systems/' 
under  combined  managements  (§  273).  The  coincident 
introduction  of  Bessemer  steel  rails,  the  steady  increase 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  253 

of  weight  carried  by  trains,  and  concentrated  competition 
have  reduced  railway  freight  rates  through  the  whole 
of  this  period.  The  average  rates  per  ton  per  mile  were 
1.7  cents  in  New  York  in  1870,  and  0.8  in  1880;  2.4  cents 
in  Ohio  in  1870,  and  0.9  in  1880.  The  persistent  effects 
of  such  a  process  on  the  industries  of  so  large  a  country 
can  hardly  be  described. 

313.  The  extraordinary  stimulus  given  to  a  new  terri 
tory,  if  it  has  any  basis  for  production,  by  the  introduc 
tion  of  a  new  railway,  is  also  quite  beyond  Railways  in  the 
description.  Most  of  the  western  railways  west- 
have  had  to  build  up  their  own  traffic ;  the  railway  has 
been  built,  and  the  sales  of  lands  have  afterward  brought 
into  existence  the  towns  and  even  States  which  are  to 
support  it.  Nebraska  was  described  in  the  Government 
reports  of  1854  as  a  desert  country,  hopelessly  unfitted 
for  agriculture,  and  the  maps  of  the  time  put  it  down  as 
a  part  of  the  "  Great  American  Desert."  It  is  now  one 
of  the  leading  agricultural  States  of  the  Union,  with  a 
population  of  a  million  ;  and  Dakota  is  waiting  only  for 
the  legal  form  of  admission1  to  become  a  State.  The 
profits  of  railway  construction,  the  opportunities  for 
skilful  management  in  the  development  of  territory,  and 
the  spice  of  gambling  which  permeated  the  whole  were 
great  temptations  to  Americans  to  embark  in  the  busi 
ness.  The  miles  of  railway  constructed  per  annum, 
which  had  been  from  1000  to  3000  (averaging  about 
1500  miles)  for  the  period  1859-68,  rose  to  4615  miles 
in  1869,  to  6070  miles  in  1870,  and  to  7379  miles  in  1871. 
Masses  of  laborers  were  brought  into  situations  from 
which  they  could  not  easily  escape ;  and  masses  of  capi- 

1  See  notes,  pp.  58  and  96. 


254  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tal  were  locked  up  in  railways  which  were  finally  unpro 
ductive,  and  resulted  only  in  total  loss.     The  result  was 
Financial      the  financial  crisis  of  1873,  from  which  the 

crisis  of  1873.   country  has  hardly  yet  fully  recovered. 
314.   For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States,  the  south  has  taken  a  normal  part  in  all  this 

Progress  of  the  development  (§  304),  though  it  was  not  until 
south.  about  1885  that  southern  progress  was  fully 
understood  by  the  rest  of  the  country.  Staggering  under 
a  load  of  poverty  and  discouragement  which  might  have 
appalled  any  people,  with  the  addition  of  social  problems 
which  no  other  country  has  solved  with  any  great  satis 
faction,  the  southern  people  began  to  feel  for  the  first 
time  the  healthy  atmosphere  of  free  labor.  The  former 
slave  is  a  free  laborer,  and  the  white  man  has  gone  to 
work ;  white  labor  produced  ten  per  cent,  of  the  cotton 
crop  of  1860  and  fifty-five  per  cent,  of  that  of  1886. 
The  last  eighteen  slave-labor  crops  of  cotton  amounted 
to  51,000,000  bales;  the  first  eighteen  free-labor  crops 
amounted  to  75,000,000  bales.  And  the  latter  figures 
are  deceptive  from  the  fact  that,  in  their  period,  the 
south  had  turned  a  large  percentage  of  its  labor  and 
capital  into  industries  which  had  not  been  possible,  only 
longed  for,  under  the  slave  system.  Cotton-seeds  were 
waste  under  slavery :  600,000  tons  of  them  were  crushed 
in  1886,  giving  an  entirely  new  production  of  $12,000,000 
per  annum  of  cotton-seed  oil.  Southern  railways,  which 
had  made  but  a  meagre  comparison  with  those  of  the 
north  and  west  in  1860,  began  to  assume  something  of 
the  network  appearance  of  the  latter ;  they  too  began  to 
concentrate  into  "  systems,"  to  reduce  rates  and  improve 
service,  and  to  develop  new  territory.  Southern  manu 
factures  began  to  affect  northern  markets  j  cotton-mills 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  255 

in  the  south,  began  to  reap  the  advantages  of  their 
immediate  contiguity  to  their  raw  material.  Pennsyl 
vania  iron-masters  were  startled  as  their  product  was 
undersold  in  the  Philadelphia  markets  by  southern  iron  ; 
and  the  great  mineral  fields  of  Tennessee  and  northern 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi,  over  which  Sherman's 
and  Hood's  men  had  so  lately  been  tramping  and  fighting, 
were  brought  into  notice  and  development.  Wonderful 
as  the  general  progress  of  the  United  States  has  been 
during  this  period,  the  share  of  the  new  south  under  free 
labor  has  been  one  of  the  most  remarkable  phases  in  it. 

315.  The  population  rose  from  31,443,321  in  1860  to 
38,558,371  in  1870,  and   50,155,783   in   1880.      At  the 
normal   rate   of  increase   up   to  1860 — one-|ncreaseof  pop. 
third  for  each  ten  years  —  the  increase  from      Cation. 
1860  to  1870  should  have  been  about  ten  and  a  half 
millions,  instead  of  seven  millions.    The  difference  repre 
sents  the  physical  influences  of  the  civil   "war.      This 
influence  was  shown  most  plainly  in  the  Southern  States, 
notably   in   South  Carolina  and  Alabama,   which   had 
hardly  any  increase,  and  a  real  decrease  in  adult  males. 
It  should"  also  be  noticed  that  natural  checks  on  the 
increase  of  population   are   plainly  perceptible   in   the 
Atlantic  States  in  1880,  and  were  probably  in  operation, 
to  a  less  extent,  in  1860-70,  though  they  were  made  in 
distinguishable  by  the  war.     The  increase  in  1870-80  at 
the  former  normal  rate  should  have  been  a  little  over  a 
million  more  than  it  was.    The  tendency  will  be  more  evi 
dent  in  future,  but  it  ought  to  be  allowed  for  in  1860-70. 

316.  The  material  prosperity  of  the  country  brought 
its   own  disadvantages.      The   sudden  development   of 
wealth  gave  the  country  for  the  first  time  a  distinct 
wealthy  class,  not  engaged  in  production  of  any  kind, 


256  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  very  often  having  none  of  the  characteristics  of  the 

people  who  are  the  real  strength  of  the  country.     The 

inevitable  extravagance  of  Government  man- 

The  era  of  ° 

speculation  and  agement,  aggravated  by  a  period  of  civil  war, 
when  the  people  were  disposed  to  excuse 
almost  any  error  of  detail  for  which  good  motives  could 
be  shown,  had  its  reflex  influence  on  the  people,  as  well 
as  on  the  Governments  of  the  nation,  the  States,  and 
the  cities.  An  era  of  legal  tender  paper  currency  (§  272), 
legally  unvarying  in  value,  but  showing  its  effects  in  the 
constant  shiftings  of  price  in  every  other  thing,  brought 
uncertainty  as  to  every  article,  price,  and  transaction. 
The  people  had  learned  that  "unhappy  lesson  —  that 
there  is  an  easier  way  to  make  a  dollar  than  by  working 
for  it " ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  speculation  among 
the  people  called  out  its  correlative  of  dishonesty  among 
Government  officials.  Money  was  lavished  on  the  navy ; 
in  expenditures  on  that  branch  of  the  service  the  United 
States  stood  third  or  fourth  among  the  nations,  while  the 
effective  results  were  discouraging.  "  Rings  " 
of  politicians  obtained  control  of  the  larger 
cities.  The  "  Tweed  ring  "  in  New  York  city  was  over 
thrown  in  1872 ;  but  New  York  was  not  the  only  city  of 
corruption :  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  and  almost  every  city 
large  enough  to  have  fat  opportunities  for  fraud  and  to 
deprive  universal  suffrage  of  the  general  acquaintance 
of  neighbors,  each  fell  under  control  of  its  "  ring,"  and 
was  plundered  without  mercy.  Corruption  even  attacked 
the  judiciary ;  for  the  first  time  American  judges  were 
found  who  were  willing  to  prostitute  their  positions,  and 
the  members  of  the  "  Erie  ring  "  were  able  to  hold  their 
ill-gotten  railroads  because  they  owned  the  necessary 
judges.  A  " whiskey  ring"  of  distillers  and  Govern- 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  257 

ment  employees  (1874)  assumed  national  proportions, 
and  robbed  the  Government  of  a  large  percentage  of 
its  internal  taxation  on  spirits.  The  "  star 
routes,"  in  which  the  contracts  for  mail  trans 
portation  were  altered  at  the  discretion  of  the  contractor 
and  the  Government  after  the  competition  for  the  con 
tracts  had  been  decided,  gave  rise  to  as  great  scandals 
through  the  connivance  of  Government  agents  with  dis 
honest  contractors.  ISTo  one  wno  lived  in  this  period 
will  wonder  at  the  pessimistic  tone  of  the  public  speeches 
which  marked  the  hundredth  year  of  the  republic  (1876) . 
317.  The  republic  had  life  and  vigor  in  it,  and  its 
people  showed  no  disposition  to  despair  before  the  mass 
of  corruption  which  confronted  them.  The  newspapers 
attacked  the  star-route  contractors,  and  drove  the  Govern 
ment  into  an  attack  upon  the  ring,  which  broke  it  up. 
The  efforts  of  private  individuals,  backed  by  newspapers, 
broke  up  the  Tweed  ring,  banished  or  imprisoned  its 
members,  expelled  the  corrupt  judges  from  the  bench, 
and  carried  destruction  into  the  widespread  whiskey  ring. 
Local  rings  were  attacked  in  city  after  city,  were  broken 
up  and  revived  again,  but  always  found  the  struggle  for 
existence  more  and  more  desperate.  The  people  have 
shown  themselves  almost  vindictive  in  driving  out  of 
public  life  any  who  have  been  proved  dishonest :  when 
the  "Credit  Mobilier,"  the  construction  com-  ., Credit 
pany  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad,  was  Mobilier." 
shown  to  have  bribed  or  influenced  members  of  Congress 
to  vote  for  it,  there  is  ground  for  believing  that  the  pun 
ishment  was  distributed  more  widely  than  justice  de 
manded  ;  and  it  has  come  to  be  recognized  as  a  decided 
disadvantage  for  a  public  man  to  be  known  as  shrewd 
rather  than  honest.  * 


258  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

318.  The  completion  of  reconstruction  in  1870,  and  the 
adoption  of  the  15th  amendment  (§  125),  made  negro 
The  reconstruct-  suffrage  the  law  of  the  land,  even  in  the  South 
ed  Government.  ern  States.  The  southern  whites  were  the 
tax-payers;  the  negroes  were  the  majority;  and  the 
negro  legislatures  proved  hopelessly  corrupt.  In  one  or 
two  States  the  whites  recovered  control  of  their  States  by 
hiring  their  negroes  to  remain  at  home  on  election  day, 
or  by  threatening  them  with  discharge  for  voting.  Fail 
ing  in  this  line  of  action  in  other  States,  the  whites  fell 
into  a  steady  tendency  towards  violence.  A  widespread 

11  KU-KIUX-  secret  society,  the  "  Ku-Klux-Klan,"  beginning 
Kian."  with  the  effort  to  overawe  the  negro  popula 
tion  by  whipping  and  arson,  was  rapidly  driven  into 
political  murders.  The  reconstructed  Governments  re 
sisted  as  best  they  could.  They  tried  to  use  the  force  of 
the  State  against  the  offenders  ;  but  the  best  part  of  the 
force  of  the  State  was  the  white  element,  which  was  most 
deeply  involved  in  the  resistance  to  the  legal  Government. 
On  the  application  of  the  legislature  of  a  State,  or  of  the 
governor  if  the  legislature  cannot  be  summoned,  the 
President  may  send  Federal  troops  to  suppress  rebellion 
(§  125).  The  reconstructed  Governments  called  on  Pres 
ident  Grant  for  such  aid,  and  received  it.  But  the  whites 
were  the  stronger  race,  struggling  for  property,  and  know 
ing  well  the  letter  of  the  law.  They  .refused  to  resist  the 
smallest  atom  of  Federal  authority  :  a  large  force  of  them, 
mainly  old  Confederates  and  excellent  fighting  men,  who 
had  seized  the  city  of  New  Orleans  and  overturned  the 
reconstructed  Government  (1874),  retired  quietly  before  a 
detachment  of  United  States  troops,  and  allowed  the  State 
Government  to  be  restored.  The  little  United  States  army 
in  the  south  was  kept  busy.  Wherever  it  appeared,  resist- 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  259 

ance  ceased  at  once,  breaking  out  at  the  same  time  else 
where.  The  whites  had  to  gain  but  a  single  victory;  as 
soon  as  they  secured  a  majority  in  a  State  legislature  they 
so  arranged  the  election  laws  and  machinery  that  a  negro 
majority  was  thenceforth  impossible.  The  legislatures 
and  governors,  with  nearly  all  the  local  officers,  were  then 
Democrats :  calls  for  Federal  troops  ceased  at  once  ;  and 
the  Eepublicans  of  the  north,  the  dominant  party  of  the 
nation,  were  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  seeing  their 
southern  vote  disappear,  without  the  ability  to  do  any 
thing  to  check  the  process.  As  the  election  of  1876  drew 
near,  the  reconstructed  Governments  of  all  the  seceding 
States,  except  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  had 
become  Democratic. 

319.  Congress,  which  was  controlled  by  the  Republi 
cans,  had  not  been  idle.  The  Civil  Rights  Act  (1870) 
provided  that  fines  and  damages  should  be 

,    P  .    ,     .  ,      Civil  Rights  Act. 

imposed  for  any  attempt  to  violate  or  evade 
the  15th  amendment  or  for  conspiracy  to  deprive  the 
negroes   of  the   right   of   suffrage.     The   Election   Act 
(1870)  exercised  for  the  first  time  the  right 
to   alter  or  amend  State  laws  as  to  Federal 
elections  which  the  Constitution  had  given  to  Congress. 
This  was  strengthened  by  another  Act  in  the  following  year. 
The  Force  Act  (1871)  went  farther  than  the 
instincts  of  the  American  people  could  follow 
Congress.     It  provided  that  any  conspiracy  or  combina 
tion  strong  enough  to  deprive  the  negroes  of  the  bene 
fits  of  the  14th  amendment  should  be  evidence  of  a  "  de 
nial  by  the  State  of  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws  "  to 
all  its  citizens ;  that  the  President  should  be  empowered 
to  use  the  army,  navy,  and  militia  to  suppress  such  com 
binations  ;  that,  when  any  combination  should  appear  in 


260  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

arms,  the  act  should  be  a  rebellion  against  the  United 
States ;  and  that,  in  such  case,  the  President  should  have 
power  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  the  rebel 
lious  Territory  (§  305). 

320.  It  was  plain  that  the  southern  whites  meant  to 
govern  their  States  with  little  present  regard  to  the  last 
two  amendments,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  defeat 
their  purpose  without  cutting  up  the  State  system  in  the 
south  by  the  roots.     Even  in  1872  a  strong  element  of 
the  Republican  party  thought  that  the  party  policy  had 
gone  too  near  the  latter  course.     It  held  a  convention  of 

Liberal  Repub-  its  own,  under  the  name  of  the  Liberal  Repub 
lican  party.  iican  party,  and  nominated  Greeley  and  Brown. 
The  Democratic  party,  anxious  to  save  local  government 
and  State  rights  in  the  south,  but  completely  discredited 
by  its  opposition  to  the  war,  accepted  the  Liberal  Repub 
lican  platform  and  nominations.  Its  action  was  in  one 
sense  a  failure ;  Greeley  had  been  one  of  the  bitterest  and 
angriest  critics  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  so  many  of 
the  Democrats  refused  to  vote  for  him  that  his  defeat 
was  hardly  ever  doubtful.  The  Republicans 
renominated  Grant,  with  Henry  Wilson  for 
Vice-President  j  and  they  received  the  votes  of  286  of  the 
349  electors,  and  were  elected.  The  action  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  in  adopting  the  Liberal  Republican  platform, 
and  thus  tacitly  abandoning  its  opposition  to  reconstruc 
tion,  brought  it  back  into  the  lines  of  political  conflict 
and  made  it  a  viable  party. 

321.  The  election  of  1876  was  the  first  really  con 
tested  election  since  1860.     The  Democrats  nominated 

Tilden  and  Hendricks,  and  the  Republicans 

5>  Hayes  and  Wheeler.     The  platforms  showed 

no  distinct  grounds  of  party  struggle,  except  that   of 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  261 

the  ins  and  the  outs.  The  election  turned  on  the  votes 
of  the  Southern  States  in  which  the  reconstructed  Gov 
ernments  still  held  their  own  or  claimed  to  do  so ; 
and  the  extra-constitutional  device  of  an  electoral  com 
mission  resulted  in  a  decision  in  favor  of  Hayes  and 
Wheeler.  As  a  part  of  the  result,  some  arrangement  had 
been  made  for  the  settlement  of  the  southern  difficulties, 
for  Grant  immediately  withdrew  the  troops  from  Florida, 
South  Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  and  the  reconstructed 
Governments  of  those  States  surrendered  without  a 
struggle.  All  the  Southern  States  were  now  Democratic; 
the  negroes  had  every  right  but  that  of  voting  ;  and  even 
this  was  permitted  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  throw  a  veil 
over  the  well-understood  general  state  of  affairs.  Colo 
rado,  the  thirty-eighth  State  (and  the  last  up  Admission  of 
to  1887),  was  admitted  in  1876  and  took  part  c°'°rad°- 
in  this  election. 

322.   The  Hayes  administration  was  a  welcome  period 
of  calm.     The  main  subject  of  public  interest  was  mone 
tary,  and  much  of  it  was  due  to  the  change  of  conditions 
during  and  since  the  war.     In  order  to  sell  bonds  during 
the  war  it  had  been  necessary,  not  only  to  make  the 
interest  very  high  (in  some  cases  seven  and  three-tenths 
per  cent.),  but  to  sell  them  for  the  Government's  own 
depreciated  paper.     The  Act  of  1869,  to  restore  the  pub-  \ 
lie  credit,  pledged  the  faith  of  the  United  States  that  \ 
the  bonds  should  be  paid  in  coin.     This  had  seemed  very  I 
inequitable  to  some,  but  was  acquiesced  in.     When  the  !i 
price  of  silver  had  fallen,  in  July,  1876,  to  94  Demonetization  ' 
cents,  a  ratio  for  gold  and  silver  of  20  :  1,  and      of  silver. 
it  was  found  that  an  Act  of  1873  had  dropped  the  silver 
dollar  from  the  coinage,  the  people  jumped  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  this  was  a  trick  of  the  bondholders  to  secure  a 


262  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

further  advantage  in  the  payment  of  their  bonds  in  the 
more  valuable  metal  only.  It  was  useless  to  urge  that 
for  forty  years  before  1873  the  silver  dollar  had  been 
token  money,  and  that  its  average  coinage  had  been 
only  about  $150,000  a  year ;  the  current  was  too  strong 
to  be  resisted,  and  Congress  passed  (1878)  an  Act  to 
restore  the  silver  dollar  to  the  coinage,  to  compel  the 
coinage  of  at  least  $2,000,000  in  silver  per  month,  and  to 
make  the  silver  dollar  legal  tender  to  any  amount.  The 
Act  is  still  (1887)  in  force,  in  spite  of  the  recommenda 
tions  of  successive  Presidents  and  Secretaries  of  the 
Treasury  for  its  repeal.  The  operation  of 

Refunding.  „         ...          .       ,    ,  1,1 

refunding  had  been  begun  under  the  Act  of 
July  14,  1870,  authorizing  the  issue  of  five,  four  and  a 
half,  and  four  per  cent,  bonds,  to  take  the  place  of  those 
at  higher  interest  which  should  be  payable.  This  first 
refunding  operation  was  completed  in  the  year  of  the  re 
sumption  of  specie  payments  (1879).  The  issues  were 
$500,000,000  at  five  per  cent.,  $185,000,000  at  four  and 
one-half,  and  $710,345,950  at  four,  reducing  the  annual 
interest  charge  from  $81,639,684  to  $61,738,838.  One 
secret  of  the  success  of  the  Government  and  its  high 
credit  was  the  persistence  of  the  people  in  urging  the 
payment  of  the  national  debt.  The  work  was  begun  as 
soon  as  the  war  was  ended ;  before  all  the  soldiers  had 
Reduction  of  been  sent  home  $30,000,000  of  the  debt  had 
national  debt.  \)QQn  paid,  and  hardly  a  month  has  passed 
since  without  some  reduction  of  the  total  amount. 
Between  1865  and  1880  the  debt  fell  from  $2,850,000,000 
to  about  $2,000,000,000 ;  and,  as  it  decreased,  the  ability 
of  the  Government  to  borrow  at  lower  interest  increased. 
About  $200,000,000  of  six  per  cent,  bonds  fell  due  in 
1881,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (Windom)  took 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  263 

the  responsibility  of  allowing  the  holders  of  them  to 
exchange  them  for  three  and  one-half  per  cent,  bonds, 
redeemable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Government.  This 
privilege  was  extended  to  about  $300,000,000  of  other 
bonds,  giving  a  saving  of  $10,000,000  interest.  The  four 
and  one-half  per  cent,  bonds  of  1870-71  ($250,000,000) 
are  not  redeemable  until  1891,  and  the  four  bonds 
($738,000,000)  until  1907.  Eoughly  stated,  the  whole 
debt,  deducting  cash  in  the  treasury,  is  under  $1,400,- 
000,000,  about  $1,100,000,000  being  interest  bearing,  the 
remainder  non-interest  bearing  paper  currency  of  differ 
ent  kinds. 

323.  In  1880  the  Eepublicans  nominated  Garfield  and 
Arthur,  and  the  Democrats  Hancock  and  English.  Again 
there  was  no  great  distinction  between  the 

Election  of  1880. 

party  principles  advocated.  The  Democrats, 
naturally  a  free-trade  party,  were  not  at  all  ready  to  fight 
a  battle  on  that  issue ;  and  the  Eepublicans,  turning  the 
contest  to  the  point  on  which  their  opponents  were 
divided,  succeeded  in  electing  their  candidates.  They 
were  inaugurated  in  1881;  and  the  scramble  for  office 
which  had  marked  each  new  administration  since  1829 
followed  (§  202).  The  power  of  the  senate  to  confirm 
the  President's  nominations  had  brought  about  a  practice 
by  which  the  appointments  in  each  State  were  left  to 
the  suggestion  of  the  administration  senators  from  that 
State.  The  senators  from  New  York,  feeling  aggrieved 
at  certain  appointments  in  their  State,  and  desiring  the 
prestige  of  a  re-election  by  their  legislature,  resigned. 
Unfortunately  for  them  the  legislature  took  them  at 
their  word,  and  began  to  ballot  for  their  successors. 
Their  efforts  to  be  re-elected,  the  caucuses  and  charges 
of  treachery  or  corruption,  and  the  newspaper  comments 


264  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

made  up  a  disgraceful  scene.     In  the  midst  of  it  a  dis 
appointed  applicant  for  office  shot  the  President  (July  2), 
Assassination  of  an^  he  died  two  months  later.      Vice-Presi- 
Garfieid.      ^g^  Arthur  succeeded  him  (§  117),  and  had 
an  uneventful  administration.     The  death  of  President 
Garfield  called  general  attention  to  the  abominations  of 
the  system  under  which  each  party,  while  in  office,  had 
paid  its  party  expenses  by  the  use  of  minor  offices  for 
civil  service    its  adherents.     The  President's  power  of  ap- 
reform.       pointinent  could  not  be  controlled ;  but  the 
Pendleton  Act  (1883)  permitted  the  President  to  make 
appointments  to  designated  classes  of  offices  on  the  rec 
ommendation  of  a  board  of  civil  service  commissioners. 
President  Arthur  executed  the  law  faithfully,  but  its 
principle  could  hardly  be  considered  established  until  it 
had  been  put  through  the  test  of  a  Democratic  admin 
istration  ;  and  this  consideration  undoubtedly 

Election  of  1884.   ,-,...     n  ,1  i       .  •  /-ior>,i\ 

had  its  influence  on  the  next  election  (1884). 
The  ^Republicans  nominated  Elaine  and  Logan,  and  the 
Democrats  Cleveland  and  Hendricks.  A  small  majority 
for  the  Democratic  candidates  in  the  State  of  New  York 
gave  them  its  electoral  votes  and  decided  the  election  in 
their  favor.  They  were  inaugurated  (1885),  and  for  the 
first  time  in  more  than  fifty  years  no  general  change  of 
office-holders  took  place.  The  Pendleton  Act  was 
obeyed ;  and  its  principle  was  applied  to  very  many  of 
the  offices  not  legally  covered  by  it.  There  have  been, 
however,  very  many  survivals  of  the  old  system  of 
appointment,  and  each  of  them  has  been  met  by  a  general 
popular  disapproval  which  is  the  best  proof  of  the  change 
of  public  sentiment.  At  least,  both  parties  are  com 
mitted  to  the  principle  of  civil  service  reform.  There  is 
a  growing  desire  to  increase  the  number  of  offices  to 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  265 

which  it  is  to  be  applied ;  and  the  principle  is  making  its 
way  into  the  administration  of  States  and  cities. 

324.  At  home  and  abroad  there  is  not  a  cloud  on  the  po 
litical  future  of  the  United  States.     The  economic  condi 
tions  are  not  so  flattering ;  and  there  are  indications  that 
a  new  era  of  struggle  is  opening  before  the  country,  and 
that  it  must  meet  even  greater  difficulties  in  the  imme 
diate  future.     The  seeds  of  these  may  perhaps  be  found 
in  the  way  in  which  the  institutions  of  the  country  have 
met  the  new  economic  conditions  which  came  in  with  the 
railway  in  1830. 

325.  Corporations   had  existed  in  the  United   States 
before  1830,  but  the  conditions,  without  the  railway  or 
telegraph,  were  not  such  as  to  give  them  pro-   , 

r     '  01  Corporations 

nounced  advantages  over  the  individual.     All   in  the  united 
this  was  changed  under  the  new  regime ;  the 
corporation  soon  began  to  show  its  superiority.     In  the 
United  States  at  present  there  are  many  kinds  of  busi 
ness   in  which,   if  the  individual   is   not   very   highly 
endowed,  it  is  better  for  him  to  take  service  with  a  cor 
poration.     Individual  success  is  growing  more  rare ;  and 
even  the  successful  individual  is  usually   succeeded  by 
a  corporation  of  some   sort.     In  the  United  States,  as 
in  England,  the  new  era  came  into  a  country  which  had 
always  been  decided  in  its  leanings  to  individual  free 
dom;   and  the  country  could  see  no  new  departure  in 
recognizing  fully  an  individual  freedom  of  incorporation 
(§  215).     Instead   of  the  old  system  under    Freedom  of 
which  each  incorporation  was  a  distinct  legis-  incorporation. 
lative  act,  general  provisions  were  rapidly  adopted  by 
the  several  States,  providing  forms  by  which  any  group 
of  persons  could  incorporate  themselves  for  any  purpose. 
The  first  Act  of  the  kind  was  passed  in  Connecticut  in 


266  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

1837,  and  the  principle  of  the  English  Limited  Liability 
Act  of  1855  was  taken  directly  from  it.  The  change 
was  first  embodied  in  New  York  in  its  constitution  of 
1846,  as  follows  :  "  Corporations  may  be  formed  under 
general  laws,  but  shall  not  be  created  by  special  Act, 
except  for  municipal  purposes  and  in  cases  where,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  legislature,  the  objects  of  the  corpora 
tion  cannot  be  attained  under  general  laws."  The  general 
laws  were  for  a  long  time  merely  directions  to  the  cor 
porators  as  to  the  form  of  the  certificate  and  the  place 
where  it  was  to  be  deposited.  The  New  York  provision 
was  only  a  development  of  the  principle  of  a  statute  of 
1811  applying  to  manufacturing,  but  it  is  an  instance  of 
what  was  taking  place  all  over  the  country. 

326.  The  consequent  freedom  of  corporations  was  also 
influenced  by  the   law,  as   expounded  by  the  Supreme 

-  Dartmouth  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  "  Dartmouth 
college  case."  College  case  "  (1819),  whose  principle  has  al 
ways  been  the  object  of  vigorous  but  unsuccessful  criti 
cism.  The  States  are  prohibited  by  the  Constitution 
from  passing  any  laws  which  shall  alter  the  obligation 
of  contracts.  This  decision  held  that  a  charter  was  a 
contract  between  the  State  and  the  corporation  created 
by  it,  and  therefore  unalterable  except  by  consent  of  the 
corporation.  The  States  were  careful  thereafter  to  in 
sert  in  all  charters  a  clause  giving  the  State  the  right  to 
alter  the  charter;  but  the  decision  has  tended  to  give 
judges  a  bias  in  favor  of  the  corporations  in  all  fairly 
doubtful  cases.  Corporations  in  the  United  States  thus 
grew  luxuriantly,  guarded  by  the  Constitution,  and  very 
little  trenched  upon  by  the  States. 

327.  American  corporations  have  usually   been  well 
managed,  and  very  much  of  the  extraordinary  develop- 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  267 

merit  of  the  wealth,  of  the  United  States  has  been  due 
to  them.  But  a  corporation  which  holds  $400,000,000  of 
property,  owns  more  than  one  State  legisla- 

,     ,  ,  , .  -1,1  Corporate  power. 

ture,  and  has  a  heavy  lien  on  several  others, 
is   not   an   easy  creature  to  control  or  limit.     Wars  of 
rates  between  rival  corporations  claiming  great  stretches 
of  territory  as  "  their  own,"  into  which  other  corpora 
tions  must  not  intrude,  are  startling  things  to  any  peo 
ple.     The   rise  of  a  corporation,  built  upon   the   ruins ' 
of  countless  individual  business  concerns,  and  showing 
that  it  can  reduce  railway  corporations  to  an  obedience 
which  they   refuse  to   the   State,  is   too   suggestive  of 
an  imperium  in  imperio  to  be  pleasant  to  a  democracy. 
The  States,  to  which  the  whole  subject  legiti-     inter-state 
mately  belongs,  confess  their  inability  to  deal  Commerce  Act- 
with  it  by  leaving   Congress   to  pass   the   Inter-State 
Commerce  Act  (1887),  intended  to  stop  the  encroach 
ments    of    railway    corporations    on    individual    rights 
(§  106) ;  but  the  success  of  even  this  measure  is  still 
quite  doubtful. 

328.  Still  more  unhappy  have  been  some  of  the  effects 
of  the  new  regime  on  the  relations  between  employers 
and  employed.  The  substitution  of  a  corpo-  corporations  as 
ration  for  an  individual  as  an  employer  could  employers. 
not  but  affect  such  relations  unhappily,  at  least  for  a 
time;  but  the  freedom  and  power  of  the  corporate 
employers  strained  the  relations  farther  than  was  at  all 
necessary.  The  first  clumsy  attempts  to  control  the 
corporations,  by  limiting  the  percentage  of  their  profits, 
led  to  the  artifice  of  "watering,"  or  unnecessarily  in 
creasing  their  stock.  In  good  years  the  nominal  divi 
dends  were  thus  kept  down  to  an  apparently  normal 
percentage.  When  bad  years,  or  increasing  competition, 


268  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

began  to  cut  down  the  dividends,  the  managers  were 
often  forced  to  attack  the  wages,  or  increase  the  duties, 
of  their  employees.  The  "  bad  years  "  began  to  be  more 
numerous  and  constant  after  the  financial  crisis  of  1873 
had  set  in ;  and  the  first  serious  effects  appeared  in  the 
"  railroad  strikes  of  1877." 

329.  For  many  years  past,  the  drift  of  population  had 
been  towards  an  urban  life.     Taking  the  town  of  8000 

Concentration  inhabitants  as  the  lower  limit  of  urban  popu- 
Of  population.  iatiOn,  we  find  that  3.3  per  cent,  of  the  pop 
ulation  was  to  be  classed  as  urban  in  1790,  and  that  the 
percentage  had  risen  to  22.5  in  1880.  If  towns  of 
4000  inhabitants  had  been  taken  as  the  lower  limit,  the 
urban  population  in  1880  would  have  been  13,000,000,  or 
more  than  twenty-five  per  cent.  It  may  be  thought  that 
the  policy  of  protection,  of  abnormal  stimulation  of 
manufactures,  had  something  to  do  with  this  tendency  ; 
but  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  increase  during  the  gener 
ally  free-trade  period  of  1840-60,  from  8.5  to  16.1,  was 
the  greatest  of  any  twenty  years,  unless  we  take  the 
period  1850-70,  half  free-trade  and  half  protective,  when 
the  percentage  rose  from  12.5  to  20.9.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  cause,  the  tendency  is  indubitable,  and  its 
effects  in  increasing  the  facility  of  organization  among 
the  employees  of  corporations,  whose  fields  of  operation 
are  generally  urban,  are  as  easily  to  be  seen. 

330.  Some  of  the  corporations  were  controlled  by  men 
who  were  believed,  in  some  cases  on  the  best  of  evidence, 

to  have  gained  their  control  by  the  defects  of 
Popular  • 

feeling  towards  American  corporation  law,  particularly  by  the 

corporations.     priyilege   of  the    majority  of    Stock-holders    to 

use  the  whole  stock  almost  at  their  discretion,  even  for 
the  wrecking  of  the  road  and  its  repurchase  on  terms 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  269 

ruinous  to  the  minority's  interests.  Disrespect  for 
"  property  rights  "  thus  acquired  was  apt  to  extend  to 
other  corporate  property,  acquired  legitimately ;  in  the 
railroad  strikes  of  1877,  there  were  cases  in  which 
citizens  usually  law-abiding  watched  with  hardly  con 
cealed  satisfaction  the  destruction  of  such  property  as 
belonged  to  corporations.  Further,  the  neutral  position 
of  the  United  States  had  brought  about  the  transfer 
of  considerable  English  and  other  foreign  capital  to 
the  United  States  to  be  invested,  under  corporate  privi 
leges,  in  cattle-ranges  or  other  industries  connected  with 
western  agriculture.  The  American  managers  of  these 
corporations,  feeling  little  responsibility  to  any  power 
except  their  foreign  employers,  permitted  themselves  to 
take  liberties  with  individual  settlers  and  their  rights 
which  arrayed  a  large  part  of  the  agricultural  population 
of  the  west  against  corporate  property.  Finally,  the 
differential  rates  made  in  private,  even  secret,  contracts, 
by  railway  corporations  all  over  the  country,  had 
gathered  up  passions  of  all  sorts  against  the  corporate 
"  monopolies."  The  anchor  of  agricultural  conservatism, 
usually  a  safe  reliance  in  the  United  States,  had  ceased 
to  be  of  service  in  this  matter.  An  order,  the  "  Patrons 
of  Husbandry,"  said  to  number  1,500,000  ..Patron80f 
members  in  1874,  had  been  formed  with  the  Husbandry." 
avowed  object  of  checking  the  common  corporate  enemy; 
and,  though  its  prominence  was  short-lived,  its  influence 
remained. 

331.  The  growing  power  of  corporations,  and  that  at  a 
time  when  the  democracy  had  just  shown  its  strength 
most  forcibly  and  to  its  own  satisfaction ;  the  Anti-economic 
evident  tendency  of  the  corporations,  espe-     influences. 
cially  in  the  protected  industries  and  in  transportation, 


270  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

to  further  combinations,  such  as  "pools"  and  "trusts"; 
the  consequent  partial  disappearance  of  that  competition 
which  had  seemed  to  be  a  restriction  on  the  power  of  the 
corporations  over  the  individual ;  the  power  and  disposi 
tion  of  corporations  to  cut  wages  down  whenever  divi 
dends  made  it  necessary  to  do  so ;  the  half-understood,  but 
heartily  dreaded,  weapon  known  as  the  "black  list,"  by 
which  combinations  of  employers,  especially  of  corpora 
tions,  drove  employees  inclined  to  "agitation"  out  of 
employment ;  the  general  misgivings  as  to  the  wisdom 
or  honesty  of  the  State  legislatures,  in  which  the  power 
over  corporations  was  vested ;  the  unhappy  influences  of 
the  increase  of  urban  population  over  the  jury  system ; 
the  complicated  systems  of  appeals  which  had  grown  up  in 
American  law,  with  their  opportunities  for  delay  or  per 
version  of  justice  by  wealthy  and  determined  corporations ; 
the  altered  character  of  American  labor,  which  was  now 
largely  made  up  of  a  mass  of  immigration  hardly  yet 
fully  digested,  and  more  apt  than  American  labor  had 
once  been  to  seek  help  in  something  else  than  individual 
effort, — all  these  influences  made  up  a  mass  of  explosives 
which  became  seriously  dangerous  after  1880.  It  was  no 
longer  so  easy  for  the  individual  to  defend  himself  against 
corporate  aggression ;  if  it  had  been,  the  American  work 
ing  man  was  no  longer  so  apt  to  trust  to  an  individual 
defence;  and  laborers  began  to  turn  to  combinations 
against  corporations,  though  these  combinations  were 
even  more  prompt  and  successful  in  attacking  individual 
employers  than  in  attacking  corporations. 

332.  The  trade  unions,  which  retained  most  of  the  con 
servative  influences  of  their  generally  benefi- 

Trade  unions.       .  , .       •,  -i  -\ 

ciary  nature,  were  not  radical  enough ;  and.  a 
local  Philadelphia  society,  the  "Knights  of  Labor,"  was 


THE  RECONSTRUCTED  NATION.  271 


developed  into  a  national  organization,  following  the 
usual  American  system  of  local  "assemblies/'  with  del 
egates  to  State  and  national  conventions.  ..  Knights  of 
With  but  52,000  members  in  1883,  it  claimed  Labor-" 
630,000  in  October,  1886,  and  1,000,000  at  the  beginning 
of  1887.  Its  general  object  was  the  union  of  all  classes 
and  kinds  of  labor  into  one  organization,  so  that,  "an 
injury  to  one  being  the  concern  of  all,"  the  oppression  of 
even  the  humblest  and  weakest  individual  might  be 
answered  by  the  sympathetic  action  of  more  important 
and,  if  necessary,  of  all  classes  of  labor.  The 

,,-,  ...  .  ,      -i     •  i  •,  ,    The  "boycott." 

"boycott,7  an  imported  idea,  was  its  most 
successful  weapon;  the  firm  or  corporation  which  op 
pressed  its  employees  was  to  be  brought  to  terms  by  a 
refusal  of  all  members  of  the  national  organization  to  buy 
its  productions,  or  to  deal  with  any  one  who  bought  or 
sold  them.  Such  a  scheme  was  directly  subversive  of  all 
social  protection  or  security ;  and  yet  it  had  gone  on  for 
nearly  two  years  before  it  came  plainly  to  public  notice 
(January,  1886).  Boycotts  increased  in  num-  Anti-sociai 
ber;  local  assemblies,  intoxicated  by  their  results- 
sudden  success,  went  beyond  the  control  of  the  well- 
intentioned  head  of  the  order ;  the  passive  obedience  on 
the  part  of  the  members,  which  was  a  necessary  feature 
of  the  system,  evolved  a  class  of  local  dictators,  or  "rings," 
which  were  irresponsible  as  well  as  tyrannical ;  and  the 
business  of  the  country  was  very  seriously  threatened  all 
through  the  years  1886  and  1887. 

333.  Law  has  begun  to  pronounce  distinctly  against 
both  the  black  list  and  the  boycott,  as  well  as  against  the 
systems  based  upon  them.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the 
cruel  tyranny  which  the  new  system  of  labor  organiza 
tion  tends  to  erect  not  only  over  its  enemies,  the  class  of 


272  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

employers  and  those  working  men  who  are  not  of  the 
order,  but  over  its  own  members.  But  the  demonstra 
tion  of  the  illegality  and  tyranny  does  not  alter  the  con 
ditions  of  the  problem,  of  which  it  is  but  a  single  phase. 
How  are  the  English  common  law,  its  statutory  develop 
ment,  and  its  jury  system,  to  exist,  when  a  great  mass  of 
the  population  is  discontented,  distrustful,  and  under  the 
dominion  of  a  secret  public  opinion,  and  when  the  way 
does  not  seem  to  be  open  for  a  removal  of  their  discon 
tents  except  by  the  serious  curtailment  of  the  corporate 
system  which  has  been  so  powerful  an  agent  in  American 
development  and  wealth  ?  The  great  American  republic, 
then,  seems  to  be  entering  upon  a  new  era,  in 

The  new  era.         ,   .    ,  -.         -.  ,  n 

which  it  must  meet  and  solve  a  new  problem 
—  the  reconciliation  of  democracy  with  the  modern  con 
ditions  of  production. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  273 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


The  works  treating  of  the  various  phases  of  the  history 
of  the  United  States  are   so  numerous  that   only  the 
names  of  the  leading  authorities  can  be  given:      The 
histories  of  the  United  States  by  Bancroft  (to  1783), 
Pitkin  (to  1797),  Ramsay  (to  1814),  Hildreth  (to  1820), 
Bradford  (to  1840),  Tucker  (to  1840),  Spencer  (to  1857), 
Bryant    and    Gay,    Schouler,    Von   Hoist,    Higginson; 
M'Master,  History  of  the  American  People  ;  Gilman,  His 
tory  of  the  American  People ;  Winsor,  Narrative  and  Crit 
ical  History;    Williams,    Statesman's  Manual;    H.    H. 
Bancroft,  History  of  the  Pacific  Coast,-    The   American 
Commonwealth  Series ;  Force,  Tracts  relating  to  the  Colo 
nies  and  American  Archives;  Poore,  Federal  and  State 
Constitutions;  Hazard,  Historical  Collections;  Neill,  Eng 
lish  Colonization  in  America;  Dodge,  English  Colonies  in 
America;  Doyle,  English   Colonies  in  America;  Burke, 
English    Settlements    in   America;    Holmes,   Annals    of 
America;  Graham,  History  of  the  United  States;  Marshall, 
History  of  the  Colonies;  Palfrey,  History  of  New  England; 
Parkman's  Works;  Gordon,  History  of  the  Independence 
of  the  United  States;  Winsor,  Reader's  Handbook  of  the 
Revolution ;  Carrington,  Battles  of  the  Revolution  ;  Lud- 
low,  War  of  American  Independence;  Frothingham,  Rise 
of  the  Republic;  Story,  Commentaries;  Chalmers,  Annals 
of  the  Colonies,  and  Revolt  of  the  Colonies  ;  Scott,  Consti- 


274  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tutional  Liberty  in  the  Colonies;  Journals  of  Congress, 
1774-89;  Annals  of  Congress,  1789-1824;  Register  of 
Debates  in  Congress,  1824-37 ;  Congressional  Globe,  1833- 
72 ;  Congressional  Record,  1872-87 ;  American  State 
Papers  (to  1815);  Benton,  Abridged  Debates  of  Congress 
(to  1850)  ;  United  States  Statutes  at  Large;  Revised 
Statutes  of  the  United  States;  Niles,  Weekly  Register, 
1811-36  ;  Tribune  Almanac,  1838-87  ;  Appleton,  Annual 
Cyclopaedia,  1861-86 ;  Spofford,  American  Almanac, 
1878-87;  M'Pherson,  Political  Manuals;  Greeley,  Political 
Text-Book,  1860;  Cluskey,  Political  Cyclopedia,  1860; 
Hamilton,  Republic  of  the  United  States ;  Renton,  Thirty 
Years'  View;  Young,  American  Statesman;  Johnston, 
History  of  American  Politics;  Stanwood,  History  of  Pres 
idential  Elections ;  Porter,  Constitutional  History  ;  Story, 
Commentaries  on  the  Constitution;  Kent,  Commentaries 
on  American  Law ;  Wharton,  Commentaries;  Duer,  Con 
stitutional  Jurisprudence;  Brownson,  American  Republic; 
Mulford,  The  Nation;  The  Federalist ;  Jameson,  Consti 
tutional  Convention;  "Centz,"  Republic  of  Republics; 
Tucker,  Blackstone's  Commentaries;  Curtis,  History  of 
the  Constitution;  Bancroft,  History  of  the  Constitution; 
Elliot,  Debates  ;  Cooley,  Constitutional  Limitations,  Taxa 
tion,  and  Constitutional  Law;  Sedgwick,  Statutory  and 
Constitutional  Law ;  Bump,  Notes  of  Constitutional  Decis 
ions;  Wilson,  Congressional  Government;  Fiske,  Ameri 
can  Political  Ideas;  M'Crary,  Election  Laws;  Rorer,  Inter- 
State  Law ;  Lamphere,  American  Government;  Counting 
the  Electoral  Vote,  1787-1876 ;  M'Knight,  Electoral  Sys 
tem;  Dillon,  Municipal  Corporations;  Morse,  Citizenship; 
Lalor,  Political  Cyclopcedia ;  Burnet,  Settlement  of  the 
North-West  Territory,  1847;  Flint,  Geography  and  His 
tory  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  1828  ;  Histories  of  the 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  275 


various  States  ;  Bishop,  History  of  American  Manufac 
tures;  Seybert,  Statistical  Annals;  Pitkin,  Statistical 
View,  1816;  De  Bow,  Industrial  Record  of  the  South  and 
West,  1852 ;  Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States, 
1861 ;  First  Century  of  the  Republic,  1876 ;  Compendium 
of  the  Census,  for  1850,  1860,  1870,  and  1880 ;  Walker, 
Statistical  Atlas,  1874 ;  Scribner's  Statistical  Atlas,  1884  ; 
Iteports  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  1866-87;  Lyman. 
Diplomacy  of  the  United  States;  Trescot,  Diplomacy  of 
the  Revolution,  and  Diplomatic  History,  1797-1801 ; 
Baker,  Diplomatic  History,  1861-65 ;  Reports  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury ;  Cooper,  History  of  the  Navy  (to 
1853);  Emmons,  History  of  the  Navy  (to  1853)  ;  Preble, 
History  of  the  American  Flag  ;  Rossevelt,  Naval  History 
of  the  War  of  1812  ;  Boynton,  History  of  the  Navy,  1861- 
65;  Porter,  Naval  History  of  the  Civil  War;  Williams, 
History  of  the  Negro  Race ;  Wilson,  Rise  and  Fall  of  the 
Slave  Power;  G-oodell,  Slavery  and  Anti-Slavery;  Hurd, 
Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage;  Hammond  and  others, 
The  Pro-Slavery  Argument;  Stephens,  War  between  the 
States;  Blame,  Twenty  Years  in  Congress;  Official  Rec 
ords  of  the  Civil  War;  Rebellion  Record;  Personal  Narra 
tives  of  Grant,  Sherman,  McClellan,  J.  E.  Johnston, 
Hood,  and  Beauregard ;  Reports  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Conduct  of  the  War ;  Scribner,  Campaigns  of  the  Civil 
War ;  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War ;  Comte  de 
Paris,  History  of  the  Civil  War  in  America;  Greeley, 
American  Conflict;  Draper,  History  of  the  Civil  War; 
Pollard,  Lost  Cause;  Davis,  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confed 
erate  Government;  American  State  Papers  on  Finance 
(to  1828);  Bolles,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States; 
Sumner,  History  of  American  Currency ;  Gouge,  Paper 
Money  in  the  United  States;  Spalding,  Legal  Tender 


276  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Paper  Money  ;  Knox,  United  States  Notes  ;  H.  C.  Adams, 
Public  Debts;  Gibbons,  Public  Debt  of  the  United  States; 
Reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  Wells,  Internal 
Revenue  Commission  Report,  1866 ;  Taussig,  Protection  to 
Young  Industries,  and  History  of  the  Present  Tariff, 
1860-83 ;  Young,  Tariff  Legislation  of  the  United  States, 
1870 ;  Hadley,  Railroad  Transportation;  Poor,  Railroad 
Manual;  Adams,  Railroads:  their  Origin  and  Problems; 
Hudson,  Railways  and  the  Republic;  Ely,  Labor  Move 
ment  in  America;  Reports  of  the  Bureaus  of  Statistics  of 
the  various  States. 


INDEX. 


Abolition,  113,  162,  180,  191. 

Acadia,  25. 

Adams,  Pres.  John,  46,  60,  66,  76, 

112,  228-233,  277. 
Adams,   Pres.  John   Quincy,   152, 

159-160. 

Agricultural  machinery,  188,  224. 
Alabama,  154. 
"  Alabama,"  the,  231,  250. 
Alaska,  249. 
Albany,  240. 
Alien  laws,  130. 
Alleghany  Mountains,  23. 
Allen,  Ethan,  55. 
American  party,  198. 
"  American  system,"  155,  169. 
Andre',  John,  72. 
Andrew,  J.  A.,  211. 
Annapolis,  90,  187. 
Antietam,  battle  of,  229. 
Antifederalists,  111. 
"Anti-Nebraska,"  198. 
Arizona,  184. 
Arkansas,  173. 
Arnold,  Benedict,  61,  72,  74. 
Arthur,  Pres.  Chester  A.,  263,  277. 
Articles  of  Association,  51. 
Articles  of  Confederation,  79. 
Asiento,  the,  26. 
Assembly,  9,  37-39,  46,  85. 
Atlanta,  238. 

Baltimore,  115,  148,  217. 

Bank  of  the    United    States,  124, 

152,  167. 
Bankruptcy,  100. 


Banks,  176,  225. 

Baptists,  12,  195. 

Barbary  pirates,  141. 

Bell,  John,  206. 

Bemis  Heights,  71. 

Benuington,  battle  of,  70. 

Benton,  T.  H.,  169. 

Berlin  decree,  144. 

Billeting  Act,  40. 

Black  Hawk  war,  188. 

Black  list,  the,  270. 

Blockade,  the,  217,  235. 

Board  of  trade,  British,  20,  34 

Bonds,  223,  261. 

Boone,  Daniel,  47. 

Boston,  45,  53,  64,  115. 

Boston  Port  Act,  49. 

Boycott,  the,  271. 

Braddock,  Edward,  28. 

Bragg,  B.,  231-233. 

Brandywine,  battle  of,  71. 

Breckiuridge,  J.  C.,  206-207, 216, 277. 

Brown,  John,  205. 

Buchanan,  Pres.  James,  202,  277. 

Buckingham,  W.  A.,  211. 

Buena  Vista,  183. 

Bull  Run,  battle  of,  219,  229. 

Bunker  Hill,  60. 

Burgoyne,  John,  70. 

Burnside,  A.  E.,  229. 

Burr,  Aaron,  133,  141,  277. 

Cabinet,  101. 
Cabots,  the,  1,  30. 
Calhoun,  John  C.,  146,  159, 169-171, 
197,  277. 


280 


INDEX. 


California,  140,  ISO,  187. 

Camdeu,  battle  of,  73. 

Canada,  23-20,  28-30,  61,  146,  250. 

Canals,  135,  155. 

Carleton,  Sir  Guy,  52. 

Carolina,  5. 

Cass,  Lewis,  169, 185. 

Caucus,  167. 

Cedar  Creek,  238. 

Census,  95. 

Cliamplain,  Lake,  battle  of,  149. 

Chancellorsville,  233. 

Chandler,  Zachariah,  213. 

Charleston,  66,  73,  170. 

Charter  governments,  8. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  196. 

Chattanooga,  233. 

Chesapeake  Bay,  75,  89. 

Chicago,  173. 

Chickamauga,  233. 

Chinese  immigration,  250. 

Chippewa,  battle  of,  148. 

Cincinnati,  116, 147. 

Cincinnati,  society  of  the,  77. 

Cities,  115,  134,  172,  268. 

Civil  Rights  Act,  259. 

Civil  service,  166,  263. 

Civil  War,  214-244. 

Clark,  G.  R.,  76. 

Clay,  Henry,  146,  156,  15!)-1GO,  196. 

Cleveland,  Pres.  Grover,  264,  277. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  155. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  71,  73,  75. 

Coal,  172,  251. 

Cold  Harbor,  237. 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  248,  277. 

Colleges,  17. 

Colonial  rights,  35-45. 

Colonies,  revolt  of,  53-55. 

Colonization,  1-22. 

Colorado,  261. 

Columbia  College,  17. 

Commerce,  17,  88,  98,  100,  115. 

Concord,  battle  of,  53. 

Confederate  states,  208-216. 

Confederation,  Articles  of,  79. 

Congregational  Church,  12. 


Congress,   Continental,  38,  50,  55, 

64-66,  70,  77,  79-S9. 
Congress,  Stamp  Act,  42. 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  92- 

111. 

Connecticut,  8-10,  90,  92. 
Conscription,  236. 
Constitution,  93-132,  121-126,  129, 

131,  134. 
Contracts,  100. 
Convention  of  1787,  90. 
Conventions,  party,  state,  167,  208- 

209. 

Copper,  188. 
Copyright,  98. 
Cornwallis,  Lord,  68,  73-75. 
Corporations,  176,  265,  267-270. 
Cotton,  115, 137,  153,  254. 
Counties,  10. 

Courts,  Federal,  94,  104-106. 
Cowpens,  battle  of,  73. 
Crawford,  Wm.  H.,  146, 152,  159. 
Credit  Mobilier,  257. 
Cuba,  200. 
Currency,   continental,  61 ;    state, 

87;  Federal,  220,  256. 

Dakota,  96,  253. 
Dane,  Nathan,  84. 
Dartmouth  College  case,  266. 
Davis,  Jefferson,  196,  209,  239,  241- 

243. 
Debt,  public,  86,  107,  175,  235,  242, 

262. 

Decatur,  Stephen,  149. 
Declaration   of  Independence,  26, 

38,  65, 120. 
Delaware,  7,  81. 

Democracy,  13,  120,  121,  139,  174, 
'    196,  213,  272. 
Democratic    party,   127,   137,   167, 

198-199,    201-202,    204-207,    260, 

263-264. 

Departments,  100-101. 
Deposits,  removal  of,  176. 
Detroit,  24,  47,  147,  163. 
District  of  Columbia,  98,  186. 


INDEX. 


281 


Dorchester,  Mass.,  10. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  198,  205-206, 

215. 
Dred    Scott    case,    86,    113,    203, 

248. 

Dutch  settlements,  6. 
Duties,  99,  124,  155,  222. 

Education,  10. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  117. 
Election  laws,  95,  259. 
Elective  franchise,  121,  248. 
Electoral  system,    94-96,   101-104, 

121. 

Ellsworth,  Oliver,  90. 
Emancipation,  230. 
Embargo,  the,  145. 
England,  Church  of,  12,  50,  195. 
Entails,  14. 

Erie,  Lake,  battle  of,  149. 
Erie  Canal,  155,  163. 
Eutaw  Springs,  74. 
Excise,  98,  127,  256,  257. 
Exports,  19,  98,  115. 
Express  companies,  172. 

Fair  Oaks,  battle  of,  228. 
Farragut,  D.  G.,  226,  240. 
Federal  Government,  22,  79-113. 
Federal  party,  111,  134,  151. 
Federal  questions,  105-110. 
Filibustering,  200. 
Fillmore,   Pres.  Millard,  196,  202, 

203,  277. 

Fisheries,  77, 250. 
Five  Forks,  battle  of,  241. 
Flag  of  United  States,  63. 
Florida,  13,  29,  76,  182, 187,  188. 
Force  Act,  the,  259. 
Fort  Du  Quesne,  28,  29. 
Fort  Hatteras,  219. 
Fort  Necessity,  28. 
Fort  Sumter,  212-215. 
France,  6,  23-34,  G5,   69,   126-129, 

139,  144,  249. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  64,  65,  69,  76. 
Fredericksburg,  230. 


Freedmeu's  Bureau  Act,  247. 
Free  Soil  party,  185. 
Free  trade,  187,  263. 
Fremont,  J.  C.,  202. 
French  and  Indian  war,  28. 
Fugitive  slave  laws,  84,  106,  186, 
197. 

Gage,  Thomas,  49,  53,  61,  63. 

Gaines's  Mill,  229. 

Garfield,  Pres.  James  A.,  263,  277. 

Garrison,  Wm.  L.,  180. 

"  Gaspee,"  the,  49. 

Gates,  Horatio,  60,  71. 

Genet,  E.  C.,  127. 

Georgia,  5,  73. 

Germautown,  71. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  CO,  277. 

Gettysburg,  234. 

Ghent,  treaty  of,  150. 

Gold,  185,  251. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  2. 

Governments,  colonial,  7,  46. 

Grant,  Pres.  Ulysses  S.,  225,  231- 

233,  236-239,  241,  242,   248,  2CO, 

261,  277. 

Grasse,  Comte  de.  75. 
Great  Britain,  33^46,  142-151,  157, 

252. 

Greeley,  Horace,  260. 
Greenbacks,  220. 
Grenville,  George,  39. 
Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  treaty  of, 

184. 
Guilford,  battle  of,  74. 

Habeas  corpus,  99,  218,  224,  260. 

Hamilton,  A.,  112,  124-126. 

Hamlin,  H.,  206,  277. 

Hancock,  John,  44. 

Hancock,  W.  S.,  2G3. 

Harrison,  Pres.  William  H.,   146, 

179,  277. 

Harrison,  Pres.  Benjamin,  277. 
Hartford  convention,  150. 
Harvard  College,  17. 
Hayes,  Pres.  R.  B.,  260-261,  277. 


282 


INDEX. 


Hayne,  Robert  Y.,  109. 
Hendricks,  T.  A.,  200,  204,  277. 
Henry,  Patrick,  41. 
Hobkirk's  Hill,  74. 
Holland,  C-7,  72. 
Homestead  system,  164. 
Hood,  J.  B.,  239. 
Hooker,  Joseph,  230. 
House  of  representatives,  95. 
Howe,  Earl,  (57-09. 
Howe,  Viscount,  67. 
Howe,  Sir  William,  66-69. 
Hudson,  Henry,  6. 
Hudson  river,  155. 
Hudson's  Bay  Co.,  182. 
Hull,  William,  147. 

Illinois,  85,  115, 154. 

Immigration,  12,  121,  143, 165,  172, 

192,  250. 

Impeachment,  97,  101,  104. 
Imports,  21, 115. 
Impressment,  143,  151. 
Independence,  02,  75. 
Indiana,  85,  154. 
Indigo,  15,  19. 

Inter-State  Commerce  Act,  94,  267. 
Inventions,  171,  188. 
Iowa,  187. 
Ireland,  38,  250. 
Iron,  18,  153,  172,  254. 
Ironclad  vessels,  227. 

Jackson,  Pres.  Andrew,  150,  158- 
161,  166-171,  175-179,  277. 

Jackson,  T.  J.,  228-229,  234. 

Jamestown,  3. 

Japan,  199. 

Jay,  John,  04,  76,  112, 128. 

Jay  treaty,  128,  142. 
\Jefferson,    Pres.    Thomas,    65-66, 

'     84,    114,    124-120,    127,    130-133, 
277. 

Johnson,  Pres.  Andrew,  240,  245- 
247. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  28. 

Johnston,  A.  S.,  226,  277. 


Johnston,  Joseph  E.,  228,  232-233, 
•  241-242. 
Jones,  Paul,  73. 
Judiciary,  94,  104,  194. 

Kansas,  197,  200,  211. 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act,  197-199. 
Kentucky,  47,  127, 135. 
Kentucky  resolutions,  131. 
King,  Rufus,  90. 
Knights  of  Labor,  270. 
Know-nothing  party,  198. 
Knox,  Henry,  124. 
Kosciusko,  Thaddeus,  69. 
Koszta  case,  199. 
Ku  Klux  Klan,  258. 

Labor  difficulties,  269-270. 

La  Fayette,  Marquis  de,  69,  74. 

Land  system,  103,  175. 

Lawrence,  J.,  149. 

Lee,  Charles,  00,  04. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  228-230,  240-242. 

Legal  tender,  100,  177. 

Legislatures,  9,  55,  79,  96,  97. 

Lewis  and  Clarke,  140. 

Lexington,  battle  of,  53. 

Liberal  party,  182,  185. 

Liberal  Republican  party,  200. 

Lincoln,  Pres.  Abraham,  200,214- 

218,  225,  242,  277. 
Literature,  117,  156,  174. 
Livingston,  Edward,  109. 
Locomotive  engine,  171. 
London  Company,  2-4. 
Long  Island,  battle  of,  67. 
Lookout  Mountain,  233. 
Louisburg,  20,  29. 
Louisiana,  30,  139, 141,  147,  150. 
Lundy's  Lane,  148. 

McClellan,    G.    B.,    219,    227-229, 

240. 

Macdonoush,  T.,  149. 
Madison,  Pres.  James,  90,  112,  140, 

277. 
Maine,  5,  154. 


INDEX. 


283 


Manassas,  battle  of,  219. 
Manufactures,   18-20,  115,  153-154, 

224,  251. 

Marcy,  W.  L.,  169. 
Marion,  Francis,  73. 
Maryland,  4,  8,  9,  81,  89,  112. 
Mason.  George,  90. 
Massachusetts,  2,  4,  5,  8-11,  40-41, 

45,  48-55,  88. 
"Mayflower,"  the,  4. 
Meade,  G.  G.,  234. 
Message,  president's,  100. 
Methodists,  195. 
Mexico,  141,  183-184. 
Michigan,  85,  173,  188. 
Milan  decree,  144. 
Militia,  98. 
Mining,  18. 
Minnesota,  204. 
Missionary  Ridge,  233. 
Mississippi,  154. 
Mississippi  river,  23,  118,  140,  217, 

226,  232. 

Missouri,  154,  161,  200. 
Missouri  compromise,  162,  203. 
Mobile,  23. 
Mobile  Bay,  240. 
Monmouth,  72. 
Monroe,  Pres.  James,  154,  157-159, 

277. 

Montgomery,  R.,  61. 
Morgan,  Daniel,  73. 
Morgan,  E.  D.,  211. 
Mormons,  189. 
Morrill  tariff,  211,  222. 
Morris,  Robert,  87,  90. 
Morton,  0.  P.,  211. 
Murfreesboro,  231. 

Nashville,  battle  of,  239. 
National  banks,  225. 
National  Republican  party,  159. 
Naturalization,  98,  130,  143. 
Natural  gas,  251. 
Navigation  laws,  19,  39,  44. 
Navy,  64,  128, 142, 144-147,  148-151, 
214,  227,  256. 


Nebraska,  197,  200,  247,  253. 

Nevada,  240,  251. 

New  Amsterdam,  6. 

New  England,  4-32,  66,  134,  145- 

146,  149,  153. 
New  France,  23. 
New  Hampshire,  5,  8,  91. 
New  Jersey,  7,  8, 11,  68-69,  81,  91. 
New  Mexico,  183-184. 
New  Orleans,  23,  25,  150,  227,  258. 
Newport,  69,  72. 
Newport,  Christopher,  3. 
Newspapers,  175,  257. 
New  York,  7,  8,  44,  82,  90,  118, 147, 

155.  &', 

New  York  city,  7,  17,  66-67,  71-73, 

115, 155,  236. 

Non-importation  agreement,  44. 
Non-intercourse  law,  145. 
North    Carolina,    8,    73,    92,    112, 

123. 

North  West,  the,  76,  85,  118,  215. 
Nova  Scotia,  28. 

Ohio,  84,  115,  118, 147. 

Ohio  Company,  27. 

Orders  in  Council,  144. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  84,  114,  116. 

Ordinance  of  Secession,  95,  208. 

Oregon,  204. 

Oregon  country,  the,  140,  158,  182, 

184. 

Ostend  manifesto,  200. 
Otis,  James,  35. 

Paine,  Thomas,  64,  89. 

Panic  of  1837,   178;   of  1873,  254, 

268. 

Parish,  9. 

Parliament,  British,  19,  34-53. 
Patents,  C8,  136. 
Patrons  of  Husbandry,  269. 
Patroons,  11. 
Pendleton  Act,  264. 
Peninsular  campaign,  227. 
Penn,  Wm.,  7. 
Pennsylvania,  7,  12. 


284 


INDEX. 


Pennsylvania  University,  17. 

Pensions,  243. 

Perry,  O.  II.,  149. 

Personal  liberty  laws,  187. 

Petersburg,  237,  241. 

Petroleum,  251. 

Philadelphia,  71, 115. 

Pierce,  Pres.  Franklin,  195,  277. 

Pincknoy,  C.,  90. 

Pinckney,  C.  C.,  90. 

Pitt,  Wm.,  20,  28,  43. 

Pittsburgh,  27,  247. 

Pittsburg  Landing,  226. 

Plymouth,  Mass.,  4. 

Plymouth  Company,  2. 

Polk,  Pres.  James  K.,  277. 

Polygamy,  189. 

Pope,  John,  229. 

Population,  204,  255. 

Port  Hudson,  227,  232. 

Port  Royal,  N.  S.,  25. 

Port  Royal,  S.  C.,  219. 

Post-office,  136. 

Presbyterians,  195. 

President,  100-103. 

Presidents,  list  of,  277. 

Presque  Isle,  27. 

Princeton,  battle  of,  68. 

Princeton  College,  17. 

Proprietary  governments,  8. 

Protection,   87,   123,  152,  170,  187, 

222 

Public  lands,  163. 
Pulaski,  Count,  69,  73. 
Puritans,  4,  50. 
Putnam,  Israel,  67. 

Quakers,  22. 
Quebec,  29,  61. 

Railways,  171,  188,  220,  252. 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  1. 
Randolph,  E.,  90,  124. 
Rawdon,  Lord,  74. 
Reconstruction,  245,  259. 
Refunding,  262. 
Representatives,  95. 


Republican   party    (of  1793),   126 

130. 
Republican  party    (of  1856),   198, 

214,  245,  263. 
Repudiation,  58,  178. 
Requisitions,  86. 
Revenue,  222. 

Revolution,  American,  9,  55,  74-76. 
Rhode  Island,  5,  11,  90,  112,  123. 
Rice,  15. 

Richmond,  216,  237,  241. 
"  Rings,"  256. 
Roads,  116,  135. 
Rocky  Mountains,  140. 
Roman  Catholics,  195. 
Rosecraus,  Wm.  S.,  231. 
Royal  governments,  8. 
Russia,  158. 
Rutledge,  John,  90. 

Saratoga,  surrender  at,  71. 

Savannah,  73,  240. 

Schools,  164,  174. 

Schuyler,  Philip,  60. 

Scott,  Winfield,  148,  183,  195,  219. 

Search,  right  of,  144,  151. 

Secession,  57,  95,  207-211. 

Sedition  law,  130. 

Seminole  war,  188. 

Senate,  96,  193. 

Seven  days'  battles,  229. 

Seven  Pines,  228. 

Seward,  Wm.  H.,  196,  210. 

Seymour,  Horatio,  248. 

Sharpsbnrg,  229. 

Shenandoah  valley,  228,  238. 

Sheridan,  P.  H.,  238,  241. 

Sherman,  Roger,  90. 

Sherman,  W.  T.,  236,  238-242. 

Shipping,  17. 

Silver,  251,  261. 

Six  Nations,  82. 

Slave  representation,  93,  191. 

Slavery,  4,  84, 113, 137, 161, 184-187, 

189-194,  203,  206,  220,  230,  245- 

249. 
Slave  trade,  26,  93. 


INDEX. 


285 


"  Sous  of  Liberty,"  41. 

South  America,  157. 

South  Carolina,  8,  41,  73,  112, 170, 

207. 

Spain,  0,  29, 118,  139,  157. 
Specie  circular,  177. 
Squatter  sovereignty,  185. 
Stamp  Act,  39-43. 
Stark,  John,  70. 
Star  routes,  257. 
States,  22,  57,  84,  87,  92,  93,  96, 100, 

121,  122. 
State  sovereignty,  57,  79,  109,  130, 

133,  161,  216. 
Steam    navigation,   116,   140,   163, 

172. 

Stephens,  A.  H.,  196,  208. 
Steuben,  Baron  von,  69. 
Stony  Point,  72. 
Sub-treasury  law,  178,  179. 
Suffrage,  right  of,  121,  248. 
Sumner,  Charles,  196. 
Sumter,  Thomas,  73. 
Supreme  Court,  95,  99,  104-106. 
Sweden,  6. 

Taney,  R.  B.,  169. 
Taxation,  British,  36-53. 
Taxation,  United  States,  58,  87,  98, 

222,  243. 
Taylor,    Pres.   Zachary,   183,   185- 

186. 

Tea-tax,  48. 
Tecumseh,  146. 
Telegraph,  172,  188,  252. 
Telephone,  252. 
Tennessee,  47,  127,  135. 
Tenure  of  Office  Act,  247. 
Territories,  84-86,  96,  184-186. 
Texas,  181-183. 
Thames,  battle  of,  149. 
Theology,  117. 

Thomas,  George  H.,  233,  239. 
Ticonderoga,  39,  55. 
Tilden,  S.  J.,  260. 
Tippecanoe,  146. 
Titles,  14,  100. 


Tobacco,  15,  19. 
Towns,  10,  45. 
Townshend,  Charles,  39,  43. 
Townships,  164. 
Trade  unions,  270. 
Treason,  106,  242. 
Treaties,  100. 
"Trent"  case,  219. 
Trenton,  battle  of,  68. 
Tyler,  Pres.  John,  179,  277. 

Union,  plans  of,  30;  drift  towards, 
41-46 ;  accomplished,  55,  105-110, 
122,  141;  attacked,  197;  main 
tained,  246-249. 

United  States,  date  of  political 
origin  of,  59;  of  legal  origin,  66. 

Utah,  184,  189. 

Valley  Forge,  71. 

Van  Buren,  Pres.  Martin,  169,  177- 

180,  185. 

Vermont,  11,  127. 
Veto  power,  57,  97. 
Vice-president,  100-104. 
Vicksburg,  227,  232. 
Virginia,  3,  8,  17,  41,  74,  81,  83, 

91. 
Virginia  resolutions,  131. 

Walker,  Robert  J.,  187. 

Ward,  Artemas,  60. 

Washington,  Pres.  George,  27,  60- 

75,  77,  87,  90,  112-129,  277. 
Washington  city,  134, 148. 
Wayne,  Anthony,  72,  135. 
Wealth,  national,  252. 
Webster,  Daniel,  118,  169,  196. 
West,  the,  135,  172. 
West  Point,  72,  187. 
West  Virginia,  225. 
Wheeler,  W.  A.,  260,  277. 
Whig  party,  134,  159,  167-168. 
Whiskey  insurrection,  127.       .  . 
Whiskey  ring,  256. 
Whitefield,  Rev.  George,  13. 
Whitney,  Eli,  137. 


286 


INDEX. 


Wilderness,  battles  of  the,  237. 
William  and  Mary  College,  17. 
Wilmington,  241. 
Wilmot  proviso,  185. 
Wilson's  Creek,  219. 
Wisconsin,  85,  187-188. 
Woodbury,  Levi,  169. 


Wythe,  George,  90. 
X.Y.Z.  mission,  128. 

Yale  College,  17. 
Yellow  fever.  134. 
Yorktown,  75,  227. 


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